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Hubert James Austin was born in 1841, the son of the Rector of Redmarshall, County Durham. He began his architectural career with his elder half-brother Tom (a pupil of Sharpe and Paley in the 1850s), but moved to the offices of Gilbert Scott in 1864 where he was the first Pugin student in 1866. In 1868 he joined E. G. Paley as his partner.
With his arrival the firm “acquired a national reputation where advice was sought on the erection and restoration of ecclesiastical and other buildings of importance in all parts of the country.” They had a wide range of work of all types but Austin made a speciality of church designs, producing over a hundred new churches in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles as well as great numbers of restorations, where his knowledge of medieval architecture was widely recognised. As churchwarden of the Priory Church, Lancaster, he was involved in alterations there including the King's Own Memorial Chapel and the new Porch, in memory of his wife's parents, both in 1903.
He was devoted to music, a member of the Lancaster Choral and Orchestral Societies, and an enthusiastic sketcher, painter and gardener. He took little or no interest in public life, devoting himself to his family and his profession. He married Fanny Langshaw (niece of Edmund Sharpe) in 1870 and they had two sons and four daughters. He designed his own house, 'The Knoll.' in Westbourne Road, Lancaster, and died there in 1915. He also had country houses at Heversham Hall in Cumbria and Kingsworthy Court near Winchester. |
