Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, of Dublin. Thomas Collot, who was born circa 1848 was probably a son of Thomas Collot, poor law auditor, of 13 Herbert Road, Sandymount, Dublin. On completing his articles, perhaps with WILLIAM GEORGE MURRAY WILLIAM GEORGE MURRAY ,(1) he worked in the offices of several architects. He was elected a student of the RIAI in February 1867, having been proposed by William George Murray, THOMAS DREW  THOMAS DREW and JAMES HIGGINS OWEN  JAMES HIGGINS OWEN the previous month.(2) In 1870 he was the only architect to submit an entry in the competition for the RIAI's Fitzgerald Medal for measured drawings; his drawings of Grey Abbey, Co. Down, were duly awarded the prize, though the examiners, CHARLES GEOGHEGAN  CHARLES GEOGHEGAN and JAMES EDWARD ROGERS JAMES EDWARD ROGERS , felt that more large-scale details might usefully have been included.(3)

Although 'of a hardy frame and apparently robust health', Collot developed consumption in the summer of 1870 and died at the age of twenty-three on 15 April 1871 at Sandymount. His obituarist in the Irish Builderdescribes his qualities as 'Untiring industry, love of his art for art's sake, love of work for work's sake, modest diffidence of his own powers and acquirements, a deep appreciation of the wide field of knowledge on which he would enter, earnestness, an honest frank nature, and a genial disposition,…which won the regard of older workers, attracted by the enthusiasm and willing industry of so hearty and kindly-tempered a student and assistant'. The A.F. Collot who attended a meeting held on 22 January 1878 in the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, to discuss the proposed reconsitution of the RIAI may have been a relative.(4)



References

All information and quotations in this entry not otherwise accounted for are from the obituary of Collot in IB 13, 1 May 1871, 117.

(1) In January 1867, when he was first proposed to be balloted for as student, his address was given as 68, Gardiner St Lower, which was Murray's office address.
(2) RIAI council meeting minutes, 8 Jan 1867, 71; ordinary general meeting minutes, 17 Jan, 28 Feb 1867, 201,204.
(3) RIAI special council meeting minutes, 17 Mar 1870, 142; two of the drawings and Collot's commentary were published in IB 12, 1 Apr 1872, 72,75,77,79.
(4) IB 20, 1 Feb 1878, 46.


Author Title Date Details
Collot, Thomas 'The church and monastic buildings of Grey Abbey, Co. Down' 1870 IB 12, 1 Apr 1870, 72,75,77,79; RIAI Sessional Papers 1869-70, 21. (Commentary and 2 drawings from prizewinning entry in RIAI Fitzgerald Medal competition, 1870.)