George Wittet

(b Scotland, 1880; d 11 Oct 1926). Scottish architect, active in India. After completing his articles in Perth, he worked with Sir George Washington Browne in Edinburgh and later in York. In 1904 he went to Bombay as assistant to John Begg, and three years later he succeeded him as Consulting Architect to the Government of Bombay. He was most active between 1905 and 1919, after which he gave up government service for more lucrative local private commissions. The Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Bombay, dominated by a huge tiled concrete dome and comprising a whole series of ranges based on a scholarly interpretation of the Muslim architecture of the Deccan, was commenced to his designs in 1904 (see MUSEUM, fig. 7, and BOMBAY,

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George Wittet (1878-1926) was born in Blair Atholl, Scotland. He studied architecture with a Mr. Heiton of Perth, Scotland, and worked in both Edinburgh (Scotland) and York (England) before moving to India.

George Wittet arrived in India in 1904 and became an assistant to John Begg, then Consulting Architect to Bombay. These two men were responsible for the evolution and subsequent popularity of the Indo-Saracenic Style of architecture.

On May 12th, 1917, Wittet, by then Consulting Architect to the Government of Bombay, was unanimously elected as the first President of The Indian Institute of Architects (http://www.iia-india.org/aboutiia.shtml).

Wittet's designs are among the most well-known of Bombay's landmarks—the Prince of Wales Museum, the Gateway of India, the Institute of Science, the Small Causes Court at Dhobitalao, the Wadia Maternity Hospital, Bombay House, the King Edward Memorial Hospital, and The Grand Hotel(http://www.grandhotelbombay.com/) at Ballard Estate, by the Bombay Docks. He died of acute dysentery in Bombay in the year 1926, and is buried in the Sewri cemetery.

References

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