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| | CATO, William WattsBorn: 1849 06 13 Died: ?Architect : Surveyor |
Architect and surveyor who was born in Durban and who worked there from the 1880s at least until 1906. He was the son of CJ CATO and was educated in Durban, Verulam and Pinetown in Natal. He was then apprenticed to the building contractors ROLLS & PONT in Durban for five years and spent a subsequent year in their employ before setting up practice on his own as an architect and surveyor in Durban. He was Borough Surveyor by 1906. In protest against the unpopular and unfair system of forcing architects to obtain licenses in order to practice but allowing building contractors to work as 'architects' without licenses, he wrote to the authorities in Pietermaritzburg in 1885, inquiring whether 'he had to take out separate licenses for each line of his business, viz., government surveyor, architect, conveyancer and general agent' (NAD CSO 1022 1885/2401). He appears to have left Natal in about 1906.
(NAD CSO 1022 1885/2401; NWW 1906) 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. Books citing CATO Hillebrand, Melanie. 1975. Aspects of architecture in Natal, 1880-1914. Pietermaritzburg: Unpublished MA. Dept Fine Art and History of Art, University of Natal. pp 162-163
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