Item NMC/0396 - Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow

David Stuart Paterson was born on 23 December 1907, the son of David Paterson, blacksmith, and his wife Catherine Highlands. He served his apprenticeship in an unidentified office from 1923 to 1928. He studied at the Glasgow School of Architecture from 1926 until June 1931, when he obtained his diploma, and he was admitted ARIBA at the end of that year, his proposers being Thomas Harold Hughes, William James Smith and George Andrew Paterson, who may have been his father. Hughes' accompanying statement indicates that Paterson had been a distinguished student and had 'excellent and varied practical experience in Architects' offices'. He was a part-time lecturer at the School of Architecture in the years prior to World War II. In 1952 he was awarded the Athens Bursary for the British School in Athens, thus being one of the earliest visitors to study there as this was only three years after the end of the civil war. In 1959 he was elected FRIAS. He subsequently became a full-time senior lecturer at the Technical College which was absorbed into the University of Strathclyde in 1964. He was the only senior lecturer in architecture under Professor William James Smith and was in effect deputy head having mainly administrative duties. The subjects he taught included the Theory of Architecture. He was particularly well versed in French literature having trained himself in the Ecole des Beaux Arts principles and classical design.
He died aged 90 at the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow on 22 July 1998. He was survived by his wife Mary Denholm Reid Macdonald and their children and grandchildren.