Contact Artefacts
please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.

List of Projects

MASEY, Frederick William

Born: 1877 01 11
Died: 1970 04 10

Architect

SACA:
Reg No: 220
Year registered: 1927

LRIBA (1911); MIA; OFSPIA (1927); ISAA (1927); FRIBA (1933).

Was the half-brother of Francis MASEY. He trained in England and in 1894 he was a junior in his father's office (Philip E Masey and W Campbell Jones), overlapping with Francis Masey. Like his brother he proceeded to the office of Alfred Waterhouse & Son where he remained from 1895 to 1901 as assistant. He then proceeded to Aston Webb's office as an assistant from 1901 to 1903. He came out to South Africa in 1903 and was employed in the office of BAKER & MASEY from 1903 to 1907. On FK KENDALL's falling ill in 1904, Masey was sent in his stead to Bloemfontein to supervise the Government Buildings there. Masey remained in Bloemfontein, where he married, and after managing BAKER & MASEY's office in Bloemfontein for two years (1905-1907) he commenced independent practice in 1907.

Masey applied for Licentiate membership of the RIBA in 1911; with no members of the RIBA in the Free State to sponsor him, he asked Bishop Balfour, then Bishop of Basutoland, to vouch for him. Masey remained one of the few RIBA members in the Orange Free State. At the time he applied for membership he was architect to the diocese of Bloemfontein.

From 1917 to 1918 he was on active service the Great War (First World War, WW I), whereafter, in about 1923, he entered into partnership with WR HARRISON (cf. MASEY & HARRISON) in Bloemfontein. The partnership lasted until about 1927. Masey continued to practise on his own account. He won the limited competition for the Trinity Wesleyan Church, Bloemfontein in 1927. Masey played a significant role in both art and architectural circles in the Free State from the time of his arrival until his retirement. He was a founder member of the Arts and Crafts Association in the Free State in about 1907 and also took an interest in architectural education. In 1933 he was elected a Fellow of the RIBA.

Masey was responsible for the design of the Bloemfontein Kiosk at the Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg in 1936. The same year he made an extended tour of Europe with his family, leaving WW TONKIN in charge of his practice. He was Chairman of the British Empire League (1927-) and in 1934 he designed the two illuminated addresses presented by the Provincial Council of the OFS and Bloemfontein Town Council to HRH Prince George on his visit to Bloemfontein.

In 1959 he was still registered as a practitioner with the Orange Free State Institute, although his address is recorded as Mapumulo in Natal, and by 1969 he is recorded as a retired member of the same Institute but now of Grosvenor Square, Duke Road, Rondebosch in the Cape to where he must have retired.

Hon Sec, Treas, lecturer and teacher of OFS Arts & Crafts Assn from 1907; Mem Board of Committee OFSPIA 1930-1933; Pres-in-Chief ISAA 1933-4; Pres OFSPIA 1940-41; Chairman British Empire Service League (c1927-).

He was also a heraldist, and designed the arms of several municipalities and schools in the Orange Free State. He served on the SA Akademie heraldry committee whose report eventually led to the establishment of the Bureau of Heraldry. (Arthur Radburn, June 2024)

(ABE Feb 1934:4; Afr Archt Dec 1912:102; FRIBA nom papers (1933); LRIBA nom papers (1911) 998; Plan 1970 Jun:27; SAB Dec 1927:27; SAB Jul 1936:39; SAAR Mar 1927:21-27; SAAR Mar 1932:69-71; SAAR Apr 1933:100; SAAR Mar 1953:21; UCT BC 206)

Publ: Short History of St George, publ by The Sons of England (s.a.)

All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.

List of projects

With photographs
With notes

Barclays Bank: 1939. Excelsior, Free State - Architect
Barclays Bank: 1933. Vrede, Free State - Architect
Central Hotel: 1930. Koffiefontein, Free State - Architect
Church, unspecified denomination: 1905. Edenburg, Free State - Architect
Church, unspecified denomination: pre-1911. Fouriesburg, Free State - Architect
Church, unspecified denomination: pre-1911. Reitz, Free State - Architect
Church, West Bloemfontein: 1912. Bloemfontein, Free State - Architect
Empire Exhibition: Bloemfontein Kiosk: 1936. Johannesburg, Gauteng - Architect
Farm House: pre-1911. Hlohlolwane (Clocolan), Free State - Architect
Grey College Chapel: 1907. Bloemfontein, Free State - Architect
House Mrs F Masey: c1927. Bloemfontein, Free State - Architect
House NN Farquharson: pre-1911. Bloemfontein, Free State - Architect
Secondary School: pre-1933. Bethlehem, Free State - Architect
Secondary School: pre-1933. Ficksburg, Free State - Architect
St Michael's and All Angels Anglican Church: pre 1911. Koffiefontein, Free State - Architect
St Michael's Home: n.d.. Bloemfontein, Free State - Architect
Stewarts and Lloyds Building: pre-1911. Bloemfontein, Free State - Architect
Town Hall: 1932. Ladybrand, Free State - Architect
Town Hall & Offices: 1930. Bethlehem, Free State - Architect
Trinity Wesleyan Church: 1927. Bloemfontein, Free State - Architect
War Memorial: 1924. Kroonstad, Free State - Design Architect

Books citing MASEY

ISAA. 1959. The Yearbook of the Institute of South African Architects and Chapter of SA Quantity Surveyors 1958-1959 : Die Jaarboek van die Instituut van Suid-Afrikaanse Argitekte en Tak van Suid-Afrikaanse Bourekenaars 1958-1959. Johannesburg: ISAA. pp 94, 229

ISAA. 1969. The Yearbook of the Institute of South African Architects and Chapter of SA Quantity Surveyors 1968-1969 : Die Jaarboek van die Instituut van Suid-Afrikaanse Argitekte en Tak van Suid-Afrikaanse Bourekenaars 1968-1969. Johannesburg: ISAA. pp 97, 193

ISAA. 1927. Register of Members the Institute of South African Architects. Johannesburg: ISAA (Unpublished Record). pp M7-8

SAWW & Ken Donaldson (Pty) Ltd. 1958. South African Who's Who 1958 : An illustrated biographical sketch book of South Africans with separate sections for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and South West Africa. Johannesburg: Ken Donaldson (Pty) Ltd. pp 410

SAWW & Donaldson, K. 1944. South African Who's Who (Social and Business) 1944. Cape Town: Ken Donaldson. pp 323