Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Quantity surveyor, of Dublin. John Kempster, a son of JAMES FORTH KEMPSTER JAMES FORTH KEMPSTER , was born on 24 March 1846.(1) He received the Licence in Civil Engineering from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1866.(2) In 1871 his father approached the quantity surveyor BENJAMIN THOMAS PATTERSON  BENJAMIN THOMAS PATTERSON about taking John as a partner. A partnership deed was signed on 8 February 1872, according to the terms of which James Forth Kempster was to pay £1,000 in exchange for a share of profits of 25% in the first two years, 28% in the third year and 33% in the fourth. The business became known as PATTERSON & PATTERSON & amp; KEMPSTER.  KEMPSTER.

Kempster effectively retired from active work in 1914 and died on 19 January 1918,(3) leaving a widow, Alice, whom he had married circa 1873.(4) The Irish Architectural Archive holds a large and important archive of records which were formerly in the office of Patterson, Kempster and Shortall.(Acc. 77/1) The archive includes Kempster's diaries, which record both professional and domestic events from 1873 until 1900.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Gordon Aston, 'One Hundred Years of quantity Surveying: the Annals of Patterson & Kempster 1860 to 1960', unpublished typescript, 1995, 18-19,108,109 (copy in IAA).

(1) Information from Jane Leslie, great-niece of John Kempster.
(2) R.C. Cox, compiler, Trinity College School of Engineering: 'Graduates' in Engineering (1993), unpaginated.
(3) IB 60, 2 Feb 1918, 74.
(3) 1911 census of Dublin http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000241140/ (last visited, Feb 2009). 
(4) IB 60, 2 Feb 1918, 74.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for KEMPSTER, JOHN


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, ASTON'S PLACE, NO. 002 (GEORGE GUEST)
Date: 1881-82
Nature: Designs for new offices (with B.T. Patterson), for George Guest. (Unexecuted?)
Refs: Letters in IAA, PKS L7 (pp. 286,321,365,506,566,591,635,820,862,882,906,950,958), L8 (ppp. 14,57)