Sir Colin Stansfield Smith, (1 October 1932 – 18 June 2013) was a British

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and academic. He played over 100 games of

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

in the 1950s.

Background

Colin Smith was born in

Didsbury Didsbury is a suburb of Manchester, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 26,788. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. His father, Stansfield Smith, played

Lancashire League cricket The Lancashire League is a competitive league of local cricket clubs drawn from the small to middle-sized mill towns, mainly but not exclusively, of East Lancashire. Its real importance is probably due to its history of employing professional pl ...

regularly for

Accrington Cricket Club Accrington Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League (cricket), Lancashire League, which play their home games at Thorneyholme Road in Accrington. The club was formed in 1846, going on to become a founding member of the Lancashire ...

in the 1920s and once in

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

in 1949. Colin Smith's older brother,

Donald Donald is a Scottish masculine given name. It is derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinter ...

, played in three

matches for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

in 1951 and 1952. Stansfield Smith was educated at

William Hulme's Grammar School William Hulme's Grammar School is a coeducational all-through comprehensive school in Whalley Range, Manchester, England. History William Hulme (1631–1691) of Hulme Hall, Stockport, was the founder of "Hulme's Charity" later known as ...

, and

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, where he studied at the

School of Architecture This is a list of architecture schools at colleges and universities around the world. An architecture school (also known as a school of architecture or college of architecture), is a professional school or institution specializing in architectura ...

from 1953 to 1958. In 1961, he married Angela Jean Earnshaw Maw who, after his bank confused him with another Colin Smith, suggested that he include his middle name Stansfield into his surname, which he did, thus becoming a Stansfield Smith. This is a compound surname.

Architecture

Stansfield Smith worked in various architect's offices, including the LCC and the GLC in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. From 1971 to 1973, he was deputy county architect at

Cheshire County Council Cheshire County Council was the county council of Cheshire. Founded on 1 April 1889, it was officially dissolved on 31 March 2009, when it and its districts were superseded by two unitary authorities: Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East. ...

, under the directorship of Jack Whittle. Stansfield Smith was head of Hampshire County Architects Department from 1973 to 1992. During that period, the work of his office became well known worldwide, especially for its new schools within the county. Stansfield Smith became a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Architecture at the school of architecture at the

University of Portsmouth The University of Portsmouth (UoP) is a public university in Portsmouth, England. Comprising five Faculty (division), faculties, the university offers a wide range of academic disciplines. in 2022, with around 28,280 students enrolled in Unde ...

in 1992, and later

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

. He designed the university's Portland building (opened in 1997) to house the School of Architecture and other environmental faculties when it opened. The building is now used by Civil Engineering, Surveying, Information Services and the Business School.

National Life Stories National Life Stories (NLS) is an independent charitable trust and limited company (registered as the "National Life Story Collection") based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork. ...

conducted an oral history interview (C467/85) with Colin Stansfield Smith in 2007–09 for its Architects Lives' collection held by the British Library.National Life Stories, 'Stansfield Smith, Colin (1 of 6) National Life Stories Collection: Architects' Lives', The British Library Board, 2009
Retrieved 10 April 2018

Cricket

As a cricketer, Smith was known as "Colin Smith" and was a right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium bowler who played all his first-class cricket between 1951 and 1958. His

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

was played for

, who capped him in 1957, but he also appeared for

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

(for whom he gained his

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

) among a number of other teams. He was selected for the Gentlemen against the Players at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

in 1957. He scored one first-class century, hitting 103

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

for Cambridge against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...

in June 1957. As a bowler he enjoyed some success, taking five or more wickets in an innings on nine occasions. His career-best return was 6-35 for Cambridge versus

Free Foresters Free Foresters Cricket Club is an England, English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground. The Free Foresters were founded by the ...

Fenner's Fenner's is Cambridge University Cricket Club's ground. History Cambridge University Cricket Club had previously played at two grounds in Cambridge, the University Ground and Parker's Piece. In 1846, Francis Fenner leased a former cherry orc ...

in June 1955.

Honours

Stansfield Smith was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1988, was awarded the RIBA

Royal Gold Medal The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...

in 1991, and was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

"for services to Architecture" in 1993.

Publications

*''Hampshire Architecture'', John Wiley and Sons, 1988 ().
''A Caring Tradition''
(audio recording), Pidgeon Digital, 1992.

References

External links

Royal Institute of British ArchitectsCVHampshire County CouncilUniversity of Portsmouth, School of Architecture
*
Architects Journal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stansfield Smith, Colin 1932 births 2013 deaths People from Didsbury People educated at William Hulme's Grammar School Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Architects from Manchester Academics of the University of Portsmouth Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor English cricketers Lancashire cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Combined Services cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Cheshire cricketers D. R. Jardine's XI cricketers 20th-century English sportsmen