{{Short description|Australian architect (1881–1955)}} {{other people|William Wilson}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}} {{Use Australian English|date=May 2014}} {{Infobox architect |name = William Hardy Wilson |image = WilliamHardyWilson.jpg |birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1881|2|14}} |birth_place = Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia |death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1955|12|16|1881|2|14}} |death_place = Richmond, Victoria |alma_mater = Newington College<br>Sydney Technical College |occupation = Architect, artist, author |significant_buildings = {{bulleted list|''Eryldene'', Gordon, New South Wales (built 1914)|''Purulia'', Wahroonga, New South Wales (built 1916)|War Memorial, Newington College (built 1921) }} |significant_projects = {{bulleted list|''Domestic architecture in Australia'' (published 1919)|''Old Colonial Architecture of New South Wales and Tasmania'' (published 1924)}} |awards = }} thumb|150px|Drawing of Hyde Park Barracks by Wilson. [[File:NewingtonWarMemorial.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Harold Cazneaux photograph of Newington College War Memorial, designed by Wilson.]] '''William Hardy Wilson''' (14 February 1881 – 16 December 1955) was an Australian architect, artist and author.<ref name=adb>{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |first=Richard E. |last=Apperly |title=William Hardy Wilson (1881–1955) |id2=wilson-william-hardy-9147 |year=1990 |volume=12 |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref> He "is regarded as one of the most outstanding architects of the twentieth century".<ref>[http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/people_places/north/architects/wilson.html State Library of New South Wales]</ref>
==Early years== Wilson was born in Campbelltown, New South Wales in February 1881, the second surviving son of William and Jessie Wilson, and attended Newington College (1893–1898).<ref name=adb/> He was a younger brother of Barrister David Wilson KC (1870–1965). The following year he was articled to Harry Kent at the firm of Kent & Budden and studied at the Sydney Technical College at night.<ref name=adb/> During this period he took instruction in art from Sydney Long.<ref name=adb/>
==Career== Upon completion of his articles he went to England and successfully sat for the intermediate (1906) and final (1908) examinations of the Royal Institute of British Architects.<ref name=adb/> In London his circle of friends included George Washington Lambert and Arthur Streeton, and he served as secretary of the Chelsea Arts Club.<ref name=adb/> Wilson travelled widely in Europe and the United States of America and became interested in the American Colonial style of architecture. After returning to Sydney in 1910, he married Margaret Rachel Reid McKenzie (d.1939), and in 1913 he went into partnership with Stacey Neave in George Street.<ref name=adb/> Wilson exhibited regularly with the Society of Artists, and with other artists he founded the Fine Arts Society.<ref name=adb/> In 1923 his work was hung in the Exhibition of Australian Art at Burlington House, London.<ref name=adb/>
==Architectural legacy== Wilson designed mainly homes and small commercial buildings. Having been impressed by the Colonial Revival style in the US, he sought to do something similar in Australia. Nowadays he is particularly remembered for three of his homes, all of them on Sydney's North Shore and all of them now heritage-listed.<ref>The Heritage of Australia, Macmillan Company, 1981, p.2/33</ref> He is regarded as a key practitioner of the Inter-War Georgian Revival style.<ref>A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture, Apperley (Angus and Robertson) 1994, pp. 150-153</ref>
* Eryldene, located in McIntosh Street, Gordon, was designed by Wilson and Prof. Eben Gowrie Waterhouse and built circa 1913. Wilson designed the layout of the gardens as well as garden structures like a moon gate, tea house, fountain, pigeon house, summerhouse and garden furniture. The garden is heritage-listed along with the house. The house shows the influence of the Indian bungalow style. It is open to the public at set times.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.eryldene.org.au/pages/display/tours |title=Eryldene Website |access-date=14 February 2013 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926004708/https://www.eryldene.org.au/pages/display/tours |url-status=dead }}</ref> * ''Macquarie Cottage'', in Avon Road, Pymble, was built in 1918 in a Georgian Revival style. It is a single-storey house featuring deep eaves, a slate roof and a verandah with columns. * ''Purulia'', located in Fox Valley Road, Warrawee, was Wilson's own home, designed in Georgian Revival style and built in 1913. It was considered unusual at the time, but eventually had a great influence on the design of North Shore homes. It bears a strong resemblance to ''Eryldene'', with similar gardens and features. * ''Montrose House'', located at 71-73 Gaskill Street, Canowindra was designed by Wilson for the Bank of New South Wales and built by a local builder, Frank Norrie in 1915. The bank branch was closed in 1988.<ref>{{cite book |title=Canowindra Heritage Walk Of Gaskill Street |date=2017 |publisher=Canowindra Historical Society and Museum |page=3 |type=Leaflet |quote=MONTROSE HOUSE (71-73) was built in 1915 as the Bank of New South Wales (later WESTPAC)... Designed by Hardy Wilson, the builder was Frank Norrie...}}</ref> After the bank's closure the building was initially occupied as an art gallery. In 2015 the building was extensively renovated and has been operated as a bed and breakfast and function centre.<ref>{{cite web |title=Montrose House |url=https://www.canowindraphoenix.com.au/montrose-house/ |publisher=Canowindra Phoenix |date=7 October 2015}}</ref>
==Published works== In 1920, he published ''The Cow Pasture Road'', and Wilson and Neave invited John Berry to join the partnership. The following year Wilson visited China, and his architectural style started at that time to include Oriental elements. Wilson contributed to ''Art in Australia'', ''The Home'', and The Sydney Morning Herald. In 1924 he published ''Old Colonial Architecture in New South Wales and Tasmania'', a large book of his drawings undertaken between 1912 and 1922.<ref>Simpson, C. (2002), ‘Wilson, (William) Hardy), in R. Aitken and M. Looker (eds), ''Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens'', South Melbourne, Oxford University Press, p. 646.</ref> His other published books were ''The Dawn of a New Civilization'' (1929), ''Yin Yang'' (1934), ''Collapse of Civilization'' (1936), ''Grecian and Chinese Architecture'' (1937), ''Eucalyptus'' (1941), ''Instinct'' (1945), ''Atomic Civilization'' (1949) and ''Kurrajong: Sit-Look-See'' (1954).
==Later life== In 1927, Wilson left his architectural partnership and lived for three years in London before returning to Australia to live in Melbourne. He moved to Flowerdale in north-west Tasmania in the 1930s, where he contributed philosophical essays to the local newspaper.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/W/Wilson%20William%20Hardy.htm |title=William Hardy Wilson |last=McNeill |first=Barry |website=The companion to Tasmanian history |publisher=University of Tasmania |access-date=31 December 2016}}</ref> After the death of his first wife he married Elsie MacLean, and from 1940 they lived between a property at Wandin, near Mount Dandenong, and Kew in Melbourne.
Wilson was an anti-Semite and during the 1930s and 40s an enthusiast for the cause of German and Italian Fascism, an enthusiasm based in large part on his embrace of climatic theories of creative development and, indirectly, the philosophies of Bergson, Nietzsche, and Hegel.<ref>Adrian Keri (2021). ''Australian Literary Fascists, 1905-1945: A Comparative Case Study into the Development of Fascist Ideology in Australia'', University of Notre Dame Australia, pp. 63-140</ref> He blamed Jews for thwarting his professional advancement and published in 1939 a plan for a guarded settlement for Jewish refugees in the Dandenongs.<ref>Bird, David 'Nazi Dreamtime: Australian Enthusiasts for Hitler’s Germany' Melbourne, 2012 p 127 and 'passim'</ref> Wilson died in Richmond on 16 December 1955, survived by his second wife and by the son of his first marriage.<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wilson-william-hardy-9147 | title=Australian Dictionary of Biography | chapter=Wilson, William Hardy (1881–1955) | publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University }}</ref>
==Images== William Hardy Wilson made drawings of a variety of subjects including early Australian domestic architecture,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2720698 | title=[Cottage in Princes Street, Sydney] [picture] }}</ref> colonial homesteads and churches,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2726807 | title=Hobartville, Richmond, N.S.W. [picture] }}</ref> and poultry and other birds.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2793189 | title=France [picture] }}</ref>
==Gallery== <gallery mode = packed heights=150px> File:(1)Purulia(Fox_Valley_Rd)-2.jpg|''Purulia'' File:Eryldene2.JPG|''Eryldene'' File:(1)Macquarie_Cottage-1.jpg|Macquarie Cottage File:Canowindra-71-gaskill-street.jpg|Montrose House, 71 Gaskill Street, Canowindra NSW - formerly Bank of NSW (Westpac) building </gallery>
==References== {{reflist}}
===Bibliography=== * {{cite book |editor=Edwards, Zeny |title=William Hardy Wilson - Artist, Architect, Orientalist, Visionary |publisher=Watermark Press |location=Sydney |year=2001 |isbn=0-909723-76-1}} * {{cite journal |author=Edwards, Zeny |year=2002 |title=The linguist and the garden |journal=Australian Garden History |volume=14 |number=2 |page=10 }} * Keri, Adrian. ''Australian Literary Fascists, 1905-1945: A Comparative Case Study into the Development of Fascist Ideology in Australia.'' University of Notre Dame Australia, 2021. * {{cite journal |author=Simpson, Caroline |year=1999 |title=William Hardy Wilson |journal=Australian Garden History |volume=11 |number=3 |pages=4–9 }} * {{cite book |editor=Simpson, Caroline |title=William Hardy Wilson, A 20th Century Colonial |publisher=National Trust of Australia (NSW) |location=Sydney |year=1981 |isbn=0-949284-55-6}} *Davis, Joseph https://www.academia.edu/41130980/HARDY_WILSON_1881-1955_AND_DOROTHEA_MACKELLAR_1885-1968_AT_TARRANGAUA_ON_LOVETT_BAY_AT_PITTWATER_NSW *Davis, Joseph https://www.academia.edu/37389206/_YOON-GOO_at_KIAMA_-_HARDY_WILSON_IN_ILLAWARRA_Illawarra_Historical_Society_Bulletin_May_1994_17-24._.pdf
==External links== {{commons category|William Hardy Wilson}} * [http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/picturescatalogue?action=PCSearch&mode=search&complete1=true&attribute1=Creator&term1=WILSON%2C+HARDY%2C+1881-1955. Collection of images held in the Pictures Collection, National Library of Australia, Canberra]{{Dead link|date=November 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }} * [http://nla.gov.au/pict/explore/wilson.html Article about William Hardy Wilson] * [http://www.eryldene.org.au/pages/display/history Eryldene] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926012858/https://www.eryldene.org.au/pages/display/history |date=26 September 2021 }} - house designed by Wilson * https://www.facebook.com/Hardy-Wilson-Stacey-Neave-John-Berry-517926188292437/
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, William Hardy}} Category:1881 births Category:1955 deaths Category:People educated at Newington College Category:Architects from Sydney Category:20th-century Australian artists Category:People from Campbelltown, New South Wales