Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, engineer and building contractor, of Dublin. George Moyers, a son of WILLIAM MOYERS WILLIAM MOYERS , building contractor of South Richmond Street, Dublin, was born in on 11 May 1836, and educated at Bellevue House, Bristol,(1) and Trinity College, Dublin, obtaining the BA degree in 1856. At some point, apparently while he was still a student at Trinity, he served a five-year architectural apprenticeship with his brother-in-law EDWARD HENRY CARSON. H EDWARD HENRY CARSON. H e also went to London, where he worked for two years as managing assistant to George Legg, an engineer and architect who became district surveyor for West Hackney, and for a further six months in the office of the engineer William Dempsey. It is not clear when he did this, as he appears in the directories as 'A.B., architect and C.E.' as early as 1857. By 1863, following his father's death, he had taken over the contracting business in South Richmond Street, which he ran for some thirty years. In 1891 he gave up the business(2) and with his son Lambert Moyers(3) opened an office in Foster Place as 'architects and civil engineers, land and building surveyors, valuers and assessors of fire losses'. He continued in partnership with his son until 1907 or later. He died on 4 November 1916.

Moyers played a prominent part in the public life of Dublin and had a suitably imposing presence, as Lord Powerscourt recalled: 'Sir George Moyers was a man of fine figure, some six foot two in height, and he had such a remarkable appearance that he went by the name of "The Duke of Memel," and his son was called "Viscount Scantling".'(4) In 1874 Trinity College, Dublin, award awarded him an honorary LL.D.(5) He was a commissioner of Pembroke Township from 1869 to 1901, a JP for Dublin from 1875 and later a deputy lieutenant. He was also a governor of several Dublin hospitals. He was elected an alderman for the South City in 1880(5) and became Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1881,(6) which was followed by a knighthood in 1887.

Moyers was married twice: first, in 1857, to Ada Constance (d. 1885), daughter of Peter Lambert of Castle Ellen, Athenry,(7) by whom he had two sons and five daughters, and second in 1904 to Lily Pakenham, widow of Thomas Aiskew Mooney, secretary to the Local Government Board, Ireland.

ICEI: elected associate, 11 February 1880;(8) raised to associate member, 6 December 1899.(9)

Addresses: 30 South Richmond Street & 2 Dame Street, 1857; 47-51 South Richmond Street & 2 Dame Street, 1858; 3 Harcourt Street, <=1860-1862; 47-51 South Richmond Street 1863-1891; 1 & 2 Foster Place, 1892->=1900; 10 Frederick Street South, 1907-1915.(10)
Home: 8 Vesey Place, Dun Laoghaire, <=1874->=1906; 8 Clarinda Park North, Dun Laoghaire, 1911;  7 Idrone Terrace, Blackrock, 1914;(11) 27 Belgrave Square East, Monkstown, <=1915 until death.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Who was Who 1916-1928, 584, ICEI membership applications, II, 70 (NLI microfilm, Pos. 9384) and from Thom's and Post Office directories.  An short obituary of Moyers appears in the Irisih Times, 5 Dec 1916.


(1) In Debrett's Peerage (1914), 981, the name of his school is given as Clifton.
(2) Part of the premises at 47 to 51 South Richmond Street, were taken over by Thomas Drummond Lambert, a vet, and part by the builder William Crowe.
(3) Lambert Moyers graduated BAI from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1882 (R.C. Cox, compiler, Trinity College School of Engineering: 'Graduates' in Engineering 1843-1992 (1993), unpaginated).
(4) [Mervyn Wingfield, 7th] Viscount Powerscourt, A Description and History of Powerscourt (1903), 87.
(5) Irish Times, 26 Nov 1880, 7.
(6) G.D. Burtchaell & T.U. Sadleir, eds., Alumni Dublinenses (1935), Appendix, 85; Debrett, loc. cit., above gives the date as 1868.
(7) Her elder half-sister married the architect Edward Henry Carson.
(8) TICEI 13 (1879-81), ?.
(9) TICEI 28 (1898-1901), ?. 
(10) But his address is given as 17 Nassau Street in IB 49, 21 Sep 1907, 662) 1907.
(10) Debrett, loc. cit.


8 work entries listed in chronological order for MOYERS, GEORGE (SIR)


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, RATHGAR ROAD, PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (CHRIST CHURCH)
Date: 1860
Nature: Competition entrant
Refs: DB 2, 1 Mar 1860, 211

Building: CO. WICKLOW, ENNISKERRY, CLOCK TOWER
Date: 1860
Nature: Alternative proposals for belfry to clock tower..
Refs: Signed drawing, dated 20 Jun 1860, in Irish Architectural Archive, Powerscourt Albums, Acc. 89/62.1/75/1

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, BELGRAVE SQUARE (RATHMINES), FIFE TERRACE
Date: 1862
Nature: GM architect of 5 commodious dwelling houses on S side of square for Henry Peat.
Refs: DB 4, 15 Jan 1862, 20;  Freeman's Journal, 31 Jan 1862.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, GRAFTON STREET, NO. 112 (PIGGOTT)
Date: 1862
Nature: GM architect of new front for extensive music and pianoforte warehouse.
Refs: DB 4, 15 Jan 1862, 17

Building: CO. WESTMEATH, MULLINGAR, DISTRICT LUNATIC ASYLUM
Date: 1868
Nature: GM contractor for additions, 1868. Estimated cost £4,698.14s.7d.
Refs: IB 10, 1 Nov 1868, 271.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, GEORGE'S STREET SOUTH GREAT, NO. 038-40 (THOMAS DOCKRELL & CO.)
Date: 1882-84
Nature: New warehouse and alts. to old warehouse, for Henry & Maurice Dockrell. 'Geo. Moyers esq LL.D. Architect' and builder.
Refs: IAA, PKS B11/12, B12/30

Building: CO. WESTMEATH, ATHLONE, GLYNWOOD
Date: 1883-85;1887
Nature: House for F.L. Dames-Longworth. Cost: £16,482. Also bridge and turbine. Architect and builder: George Moyers. Plastering by J. Caird & Co., Glasgow. Adds., 1887. Cost: £10,702. Destroyed by fire in 1917 or 1918.
Refs: IAA, PKS 0638, B11/48, B12/19, B13/01, A07, pp.106,124,172-3,248 (May 1883-Dec 1885); Mark Bence-Jones, Burke’s Guide to Country Houses. Volume I, Ireland. (London, 1978), 142(illus.)

Building: CO. WICKLOW, TINAHASK, NATIONAL SCHOOL
Date: 1907
Nature: Being built in connection with St Saviour's parish. Contractor: William Mahony, Bannow.
Refs: IB 49, 21 Sep 1907, 662