Orders, Decorations and Medals

The nationally important Order of Merit group of sixteen awarded to Sir Basil Spence (1907-76), the distinguished post-war architect, and architect of Coventry Cathedral

The Order of Merit, E.II.R., Civil Division neck badge, gold and enamel, with neck cravat, minor enamel damage; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals; Efficiency Decoration, E.II.R., Territorial, rev. dated, ‘1957’, these unnamed as issued; Royal Institute of British Architects Silver Medal (1931), obv. a pair of stylized lions either side of a column, rev. inscribed, ‘Board of Architectural Education awarded to Basil Spence, Edinburgh College of Art, School of Architecture’, 88mm., silver; Incorporation of Architects in Scotland Medal (1931), obv. bust of Sir R. Rowand Anderson left, by Hazel Armour, rev. Edinburgh Castle, inscribed, ‘Basil Spence, 1931’, 58mm., silver; Royal Institute of British Architects Pugin Medal (1933), obv. a pair of stylized lions either side of an ornate column, mural crown above, rev. heraldic shield (Basil Spence Pugin Student, 1933), 57mm., silver, American Institute of Architects Honorary Fellows Badge (1959), by M.A.C., New York, obv. stylized eagle with an olive branch in its talons, superimposed upon a column, rev. inscribed, ‘Basil Spence 1959’, oval, 39 x 32.5mm., silver, with suspension mount, with neck cravat; Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Fellows Medal (1960), obv. seated architect in classical garments, a winged cherub presents a sprig of foliage, a temple in the background, rev. inscription (name and date engraved), ‘Basil Spence, Honourary Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada 1960’, 46mm., bronze-gilt, ring suspension, with neck cravat; Royal Institute of British Architects Bronze Medal (1963), obv. a pair of stylized lions either side of a column, rev. two builders at work, St. Paul’s Cathedral in the background (Sir Basil Spence, O.M., O.B.E., T.D., R.A., A.R.S.A., R.D.I., P.P.R.I.B.A. Falmer House, The University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton), 63mm., bronze; City of Coventry Award of Merit (1970), obv. stylized phoenix rising from the flames, three crosses in the background, rev. plain, rectangular, 45 x 26mm., gold, 30.7g., hallmarks for Birmingham, unnamed, complete with gold and enamel brooch bar, inscribed, ‘Coventry Award of Merit’; Medal of the Academia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome (1972), obv. man in classical garments, knelt, writting upon a scroll, a winged bull in the background, rev. inscribed, ‘Basil Spence, MCMLXXII’, 55mm., bronze, ring suspension, with neck cravat; with associated lapel badge, gilt and enamel; French Academie d’Architecture, Grande Medaille d’Or (1974), obv. stylized ornamented column by H. Navarre, inscribed in exergue, ‘Grande Medaille d’Or 1974 Sir Basil Spence Architecte’, rev. seated figure in classical garments enclosed by wreath, 68mm., gold, 212g., edge stamped, ‘1974’ and ‘3or’, some with minor (pin?) marks to edge, in general nearly extremely fine (17) £6000-8000

O.M. London Gazette 23.11.1962

O.B.E. (Civil Division) London Gazette 1.1.1948

Basil Urwin Spence was born in Bombay on 13 Aug. 1907, the elder son of a chemist in the Indian Civil Service. When he was twelve, Spence, whose family were from Orkney, was sent home to Scotland to be educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh. Having shown a particular ability in drawing he enrolled in 1925 at the Edinburgh College of Art to study sculpture, but then switched to architecture. Spence excelled as a student, and during 1929-30 he completed his practical assignment in London, attending evening classes at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College, and by day working as an assistant in the London office of Sir Edwin Lutyens where he helped prepare designs for Lutyens' Viceroy House in New Delhi. Spence imbibed Lutyens' masterly combination of classical and modern architectural idioms, and thereafter always acknowledged him as his 'patron and master'.

Spence completed his professional training in Edinburgh and gained his architectural diploma in September 1931, having added to his earlier prizes the Rowand Anderson Medal and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Silver Medal; in 1933 came the prestigious RIBA Pugin Medal. He was invited to join the leading Edinburgh architects, Rowand Anderson, Balfour Paul & Partners. Within the practice he designed small houses and departmental stores in and around Edinburgh, but his private commissions gave him the opportunity to venture designs that were more modernist and daring. He became a junior partner in 1935 and undertook work for some of the practice's most wealthy and important clients, designing grand country houses that catered to individual tastes, but which at the same time were eye-catching in the way they blended traditional elements with modern and made use of the natural, textured materials of the local landscape. Notable among these structures was Quothquhan, Lanarkshire (1936) for Alexander Erskine-Hill MP, Gribloch (1937-9), near Loch Lomond, for the steel magnate John Colville, and Broughton Place (1937-9), near Peebles.

In 1938 he was commissioned to design the Scottish pavilion for the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow. Spence's highly abstract construction owed much to the ideas of Le Corbusier, the influential pioneer of modern design, and was widely praised as one of the chief attractions of the exhibition. There soon followed other exhibition work in Edinburgh and Johannesburg. However, with the onset of war Spence set aside his thriving practice and joined the Royal Artillery, having enrolled with the Territorial Army 1934. He rose to the rank of Major in the camouflage unit where his talent for design was usefully employed. In Normandy, he was shocked by the destruction of ancient religious buildings and in his diary confided his ambition to build a church of his own time if he survived the war.

The shortage of new work in the years immediately after the war confined Spence to small-scale architectural commissions and exhibition design, and through the latter area his practice began to pick up. He was awarded major commissions for exhibitions in Edinburgh (1946) and Glasgow (1947) to help foster post-war enterprise, and he was chief architect for the 1949 Britain Can Make It Exhibition in London, having been appointed O.B.E. in the New Year Honours the previous year. He was then commissioned to design the Sea and Ships Pavilion for the Festival of Britain which opened on the South Bank in May 1951.

Spence had also been working on designs in the competition for a new cathedral at Coventry to replace that which had been gutted during the enemy bombardment of the city on the night of 14 November 1940-the 'Night of Infamy'. There had been some indecision over how the new cathedral should look. Initially, a new neo-gothic edifice was envisaged with Sir Giles Gilbert Scott as its architect, but Scott's 'ponderous' design was vetoed in 1946, and in setting up the subsequent competition for a fresh design in 1950 it was decided that entrants should be encouraged to think in terms of an adventurous modern church building that would embody the spirit of the new post-war order. In August 1951 it was announced that Spence had won first prize out of 219 entries. It was to be the turning-point of Spence's career.

Coventry had a special significance, being the first British city to have had its centre destroyed by enemy bombing. The project to rebuild the cathedral caught the public imagination as symbolising the nation's rise from the ashes of war. On the eve of its consecration in 1962 Spence wrote in The Times: 'When I first visited Coventry with the competition conditions in October 1950, the old cathedral burnt open by fire-bombs seemed to say in a gentle voice, “I am the Sacrifice, build now for the future, for the Resurrection”. And so it happened. The idea was born in the first five minutes and has never changed, even though in architectural competitions the consideration of alternatives is the rule. Within the next 24 hours I completed the first plan, which is remarkably like the final one completed 12 years later.' Spence's design sensitively incorporated the burnt out ruins of the old cathedral with the majestically modern sandstone building standing at right angles to it. For the interior he created a rich assemblage of colour, light and form enhanced by John Piper's stained glass, sculpture by Elisabeth Frink and Jacob Epstein, and above the high altar the great tapestry of Christ in Glory by Graham Sutherland.

The Coventry commission put Spence at the forefront of public prominence, and he devoted much of the next twelve years, not only to the process of construction itself, but also to publicising and defending his design, and in helping to obtain financial support for it from benefactors at home and overseas. He was a fluent champion of modern architecture and helped create a wider appreciation and acceptance of its principles. During 1958-60 he was a popular president of RIBA, and in the latter year was knighted in the Birthday Honours. The completed Cathedral was consecrated on 25 May 1962 in the presence of the Queen. Later that year Spence was appointed to the Order of Merit and received the insignia at Buckingham Palace on 20 December. He was only the third architect to receive the O.M., and it is ironic that both previous recipients had assisted Spence's career either directly or indirectly-Sir Edwin Lutyens (1942) and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1944).

During the 1960s Spence was in almost constant demand as an architect, and his eclectic designs pioneered the new spirit of modernity. He enjoyed the patronage of central government, the Church, the universities and local authorities. He drew up the master-plan for the new University of Sussex (1962-72) and planned the expansion of seven more university sites, plus other individual buildings at Edinburgh, Herriot-Watt, Durham, Sussex (Falmer House, now a grade I listed building), and Queen's College, Cambridge. Commissions from local authorities included redevelopment schemes in the central areas of Newcastle, Sunderland, Hampstead and Chelsea, from which emerged much additional work, notably the Swiss Cottage Library and public baths (1960-62), Newcastle Public Library (1969), the civic centre, Sunderland (1970), and Kensington Town Hall (1974). His gigantic 30-storey barracks for the Household Cavalry at Knightsbridge overlooking Hyde Park (1967-70) came in for much criticism, to which Spence responded with characteristic panache that he 'did not want this to be a mimsy-pimsy building. It is for soldiers, on horses, in armour'. Elsewhere up and down the country there were parish churches, airports, factories, theatres, schools, housing estates and power stations.

He was also employed as consultant on major public projects overseas such as the new parliament building at Wellington, New Zealand, and the new United Nations offices at Geneva. He gave particular attention to the new embassy building at Rome (1971), and the British pavilion for Expo '67 at Montreal. His professional honours included election as a Royal Academician (1960), and honorary fellowships of the Royal Institute of Architects of Canada (1962), the American Institute of Architects (1962), and membership of the Academia di San Luca, Rome (1972); he was also a recipient of the Coventry Award of Merit (1970), and of the Grande Medaille d'Or of the French Architectural Academy (1974).

Spence died on 19 November 1976. Even before his death his reputation had begun to decline amid criticism that his buildings were too theatrical and expensive. Not all of his work was a success, or has stood the test of time. But since the 1990s, from the vantage point of a longer historical perspective, he has come to be regarded as the most internationally renowned British architect of the twentieth-century. Many of his most controversial buildings are now listed, but his real legacy probably lies in the vibrancy he helped to contribute to the post-war reconstruction of Britain, and it is to this that Coventry Cathedral stands as a monument.

Sold with the following photocopied documents: Order of Merit bestowal document (1962); Order of the British Empire, Officer (O.B.E.) bestowal document (1948); Mention in Despatches Certificate (London Gazette 10 May 1945); Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor document (1960); Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, Student Certificate (1928); Edinburgh College of Art, Certificate in Architecture (1928); Edinburgh College of Art, Diploma in Architecture (1931); Royal Institute of British Architects Honourable Mention Certificate for drawings submitted in competition for The Pugin Studentship (1931); Royal Institute of British Architects Certificate of The Arthur Cates Prize for the Promotion of Architecture in Relation to Town Planning (1932); Royal Institute of British Architects, Certificate of Honorary Fellowship (1947); Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture Associates Diploma (1952); Institute of South African Architecture, Certificate of Honorary Membership (1958); Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, Certificate of Honorary Corresponding Membership (1959); Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, Certificate of Honorary Fellowship (1960); Royal Society of Arts, Designer for Industry Certificate (1960); Royal Institute of British Architects Award of Distinction in Town Planning (1961); Royal Society of Arts Associates (A.R.C.A.) Diploma (1962).