1. Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, KBE was a prolific Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, for new work in Scots Baronial and Gothic Revival styles, and for promotion of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Robert Lorimer was part of a talented family, being the younger brother of painter John Henry Lorimer, and father to the sculptor Hew Lorimer.
In 1878 the Robert Lorimer family acquired the lease of Kellie Castle in Fife and began its restoration for use as a holiday home.
Robert Lorimer returned to Edinburgh opening his own practice in 1891.
Robert Lorimer was influenced by Scottish domestic architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries and the Scottish baronial style of Kellie Castle where he had spent much of his childhood and adolescence.
From his time in Bodley's office, Robert Lorimer was influenced by the ideas of William Morris, and went on to become a committed exponent of the Arts and Crafts approach to architecture.
Robert Lorimer assembled a collaborative group of artists and craftsmen who, collectively, often contributed to his various commissions and to the manufacture of furniture sent to the Arts and Crafts exhibitions in London.
Robert Lorimer designed a series of cottages in the Arts and Crafts style in the Colinton area of Edinburgh, the so-called "Colinton Cottages".
Robert Lorimer was called in to a number of properties to carry out a range of improvements, such as minor alterations, design of interiors and furnishings, work to ancillary buildings, and garden designs and features.
Robert Lorimer already had a reputation as one of Scotland's leading restoration architects following the restoration of Earlshall and Dunderave, and he went on to carry out significant alteration and restoration works at Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland following a fire, and at Balmanno Castle in Perthshire, said to have been the only one of his commissions he would like to have lived in.
Robert Lorimer received a knighthood for his efforts and went on to gain the commission for the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle in 1919, subsequently opened by the Prince of Wales in 1927.
Robert Lorimer designed the Doiran Memorial and the three great naval memorials to the missing: Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Plymouth Naval Memorial and Chatham Naval Memorial, each of which is a Grade I Listed Building.
Robert Lorimer was responsible for St Andrew's Garrison Church, Aldershot, completed 1927, a large Army church dedicated to the soldiers of the Church of Scotland and kindred churches who lost their lives in World War One.
Robert Lorimer became President of the professional body in Scotland, the Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, and it was during his tenure in office that the body received its second royal charter, permitting use of the term 'Royal' in the title.
Robert Lorimer was a fellow of the North British Academy of Arts.
Robert Lorimer lived here for his last 26 years, though he died at 12 Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh in 1929.
Robert Lorimer was cremated at the newly opened Warriston Crematorium and his ashes were thereafter buried with his parents at Newburn in rural south-east Fife, close to the family home of Kellie Castle.
Over and above the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle, Robert Lorimer was responsible for the simple and elegant design of the Commonwealth gravestone and for the design of several CWGC cemeteries in Germany and in the Middle East.
In 1918, Robert Lorimer was appointed Principal Architect to the Imperial War Graves Commission.
Robert Lorimer was initiated into Scottish Freemasonry in Lodge Holyrood House, No 44 on 8 March 1916.