Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, of Belfast. William Wylie Houston was born on 23 February 1887, a son of Thomas Houston, J.P., of Ashley, Carnmoney, Co. Antrim and his wife Jane, née Wylie. He was educated at Belfast Royal Academy and the Academical Institution before being articled to THOMAS HOUSTON  THOMAS HOUSTON from 1903 until 1907. He remained with Thomas Houston as an assistant for a further year and then spent a short time in the office of the Belfast contractors MCLAUGHLIN & HARVEY MCLAUGHLIN & HARVEY . From 1908 until 1910 he worked as an assistant to WILLIAM REDFERN KELLY WILLIAM REDFERN KELLY , engineer to the Belfast Harbour Commissioners and then, after a very brief spell with ALBERT J. CLARKE ALBERT J. CLARKE , town surveyor of Portrush, Co. Antrim, became assistant to JAMES A. HANNA  JAMES A. HANNA in 1910.

After the outbreak of the First World War, Houston volunteered for the Army and was commissioned second lieutenant in the Royal Irish Fusiliers in January 1916. He subsequently transferred to the Royal Engineers. He was killed in action in France on 17 August 1917 and was buried in the military cemetery at Cambrin.

RIBA: elected associate, 9 June 1913, having been proposed by N. Simmons (Nicholas Fitzsimons?), ROBERT MAGILL YOUNG  ROBERT MAGILL YOUNG and WILLIAM JOHN GILLILAND. WILLIAM JOHN GILLILAND.

Addresses: 30 Ocean Buildings, Donegall Square, Belfast, 1913; 110 Fitzroy Avenue, Belfast, <=1913->=1914.



References

All information in this entry is from Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (RIBA 2001), I, 959, from www.cwgc.org (website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission), and from the obituary of Houston by James A. Hanna in RIBAJ 25 (1917-18), 90-91. Houston's death is also noted in IB 59, 1 Sep 1917, 456. A photograph of him in uniform is in RIBAJ 24 (1916-17), 281.