Edwin Lutyens Architect - 1869–1944

His country houses delighted his Edwardian clients and are still ranked among Britain’s best-loved buildings

- Catherine Coyle

Behind every great man, so the old saying goes, there is a great woman. In the case of Sir Edwin Lutyens, one of Britain’s most successful, prolific and celebrated architects, there were several. His contribution to the architectural landscape both in the UK and further afield should not be underestimated, but had he not forged strong and prosperous relationships with the women in his life, his career could have taken an altogether different route.

Edwin Lutyens was one of thirteen children born to Charles and Mary Lutyens. Both maternal and paternal lines came from a military background, and his father only took up painting once he had retired from the Forces. As a child, Lutyens (affectionately referred to as ‘Ned’) suffered ill-health and so was home-schooled, spending much of his time in the company of his mother. At home in Surrey, he spent long hours sketching, and by the time he was a young teenager he was considered to have a genuine talent for drawing. The family’s neighbour was the artist Randolph Caldecott, who took the boy under his wing and helped him to hone his skills. Lutyens’ daughter Mary, in an essay on her father in 1981, recalled his love of sketching: “He would take with him on all his walks a small pane of clear glass, a penknife and some pieces of soap sharpened to fine points,” she wrote. “He would look at some portion of a building through the glass and trace what he saw with the soap. Cleaned with a damp rag, this ‘sketchbook’ would serve him over and over again.”