{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Marshall Arnott Sisson''' RA (14 February 1897 – 26 January 1978) was a British architect, active in 1928–70. Although his earliest buildings were modernist, after around 1935 he used only traditional styles and became known for his restoration work.<ref name=Grove /> He served as the Royal Academy's surveyor (1947–65) and treasurer (1965–70).
==Early life and education== Sisson was born in 1897 in Gloucester.<ref name=Grove>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Sisson, Marshall (Arnott)|author=James Bettley|encyclopedia=Grove Art Online|year=2003|doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T079021}}</ref> He was educated at Leighton Park, the Quaker school at Reading, Berkshire.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} After working in Gloucester, he studied under Albert Richardson and James Burford at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London (1920) and the British School at Rome (1924). He researched Jerash's Roman architecture in the Middle East in 1926<ref name=Grove /><ref name=Fawcett>{{cite journal|author=William Fawcett |title=Post-War Traditionalists in Oxford and Cambridge|journal=Twentieth Century Architecture|volume=11|pages=82–97|year=2013|issue=11 |jstor=24644441 }}</ref> and spent time in John Russell Pope's practice in New York in 1927.<ref name=Grove />
==Career== [[File:St john smith.jpg|thumb|right|St John's, Smith Square, which Sisson restored after bomb damage]] His early commissions, after opening his practice in London in 1928, were modernist in style.<ref name=Grove /><ref name=Fawcett /> They include two cubical houses in Cambridge<ref name=Fawcett /> and a small residential development in Carlyon Bay, Cornwall, including Gull Rock House<ref>{{NHLE |num=1212499 |desc=Gull Rock House, Sea Road |accessdate=14 April 2022}}</ref> (1933–34), described as an early example of the use of monolithic reinforced concrete in England.<ref name=Grove /> One of these Cornwall houses was included in the "Modern Architecture in England" exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1937, and also in F. R. S. Yorke's text, ''The Modern House in England'' (1937).<ref>{{cite journal|author=Alan Powers |year=2013 |title=Exhibition 58: "Modern Architecture in England," Museum of Modern Art, 1937. |journal=Architectural History |volume=56 |pages=277–98 |doi=10.1017/S0066622X00002513 |jstor=43489737|s2cid=191507935 }}</ref>
From around 1935, Sisson embraced traditional architectural styles, starting with a neo-Georgian public library for the town of Colchester (1937).<ref name=Grove /><ref name=Fawcett /> By that date he had moved to the nearby village of Dedham, Essex.<ref name=Fawcett /> Major post-war projects include Orchard Building for Pembroke College, Cambridge (completed in 1957)<ref name=Fawcett /> and buildings for the University of Durham (1960–62), which were critiqued as "reactionary".<ref name=Grove /> James Bettley describes Sisson's non-modernist work as "self-effacing".<ref name=Grove />
He also undertook many conservation projects, including work on London buildings damaged during the war such as St John's, Smith Square (1964–9), and projects for the National Trust.<ref name=Grove /><ref name=Fawcett /> He was involved in dismantling and transporting St Mary Aldermanbury, a bomb-damaged Wren church, to Westminster College in Missouri.<ref name=Foster_Times /> He rebuilt parts of Okeover Hall in Staffordshire in neo-Georgian style (1957–60),<ref name=Fawcett /><ref>{{NHLE |num=1231031 |desc=Okeover Hall |accessdate=14 April 2022}}</ref> and converted buildings into Queen's Lane Quadrangle for The Queen's College, Oxford (1967–9).<ref name=Grove /><ref name=Fawcett /> In later life, his practice was based in Huntingdon.<ref name=Fawcett /> Peter Foster (1919–2010) joined the practice in 1948 and later became a partner, taking over in 1971 after Sisson's retirement.<ref>{{cite news|title=Peter Forster: Eighteenth Surveyor since Wren of Westminster Abbey who oversaw crucial restoration works|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=11 March 2010|page=35}}</ref><ref name=Foster_Times>{{cite news |title=Peter Foster: Architect who brought a practical streak to all his work, including the restoration of Westminster Abbey |newspaper=The Times |date=30 March 2010 |page=65}}</ref>
Sisson was surveyor to the Royal Academy from 1947 to 1965, master of the Architectural School, and treasurer from 1965 to 1970. He was elected as a Royal Academician on 26 April 1963.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/marshall-sisson-ra|title=Royal Academy of Arts Collections - Person|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=405178|title=Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA Architect Biography Report (December 22, 2016, 11:58 pm)|first=David|last=Goold|publisher=}}</ref> In 1949, he published a book, ''Country Cottages''.<ref name=Grove /> He retired in 1970<ref name=Fawcett /> and died in Cambridge in 1978.<ref name=Grove /> He left his house in Dedham, Shermans, to the National Trust.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ribapix.com/Shermans-High-Street-Dedham-Essex-the-main-facade-with-sundial-and-a-doorway-with-pediment-on-Corinthian-pilasters_RIBA38959#|title=Shermans, High Street, Dedham, Essex: the main facade with sundial and a doorway with pediment on Corinthian pilasters|publisher=RIBA|accessdate=15 April 2022}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Art UK bio}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sisson, Marshall}} Category:1897 births Category:1978 deaths Category:Royal Academicians Category:20th-century English architects