Obituary MR C. LOVELL-SMITH

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29228, 11 June 1960, Page 15

Obituary MR C. LOVELL-SMITH

Mr Colin Lovell-Smith, director of the School of Art of the University of Canterbury since 1947, died in Christchurch yesterday. He was 66.

Mr Lovell-Smith joined the School of Art staff in 1927 as an instructor in general and commercial art He was a regular exhibitor at the main New Zealand art exhibitions, usually in figure composition, landscape in oils, and water colour. He was one of the first painters in New Zealand to break away from the English style ot landscape painting and produce New Zealand landscapes with local atmosphere and character.

He was a former president of the Canterbury Society of Arts, and a vice-president at the time of his death, as well as being a member of the society’s council continuously since 1932. Mr Lovell-Smith was born tn Christchurch and entered the School of Art in 1908 to study general and commercial art He

then entered his father's printing business of Smith and Anthony, Ltd., as a commercial artist.

He served on Gallipoli with the Ist N.Z.E.F., later being transferred to become a draughtsman with a survey company of the Royal Engineers on the Balkan front For this work he was awarded the Serbian Gold Medal of Merit In 1917, at his own request, he returned to the New Zealand Division, serving with the Engineers in France until the armistice. Returned to Christchurch in 1919, he continued commercial art work, and then taught art classes at St. Andrew’s College, before joining the School of Art staff in 1927.

On its inception in 1930, he was awarded the diploma of f--.e arts of the University of New Zealand. Later he became life master and lecturer in artistic anatomy at the School of Art, and also an examiner of the University of New Zealand. When the National Military Reserve was established in 1959, Mr Lovell-Smith joined the 3rd Battalion and was mobilised in Dec* ember, 1941, serving in the intelligence section. On release, he joined the Home Guard, and was intelligence officer of the Christchurch West Battalion when the war ended.

Mr Lovell-Smith Is survived by his widow and two sons.

MR WILLIAM YATES

Known widely in the second NJZE.F. as “the man who built the Maadi baths,” Mr William Yates died recently in Wellington. He was 57.

Mr Yates was born in Dunedin. He completed bis architectural qualifications in 1935, an<b after living for a number of years in Invercargill, and having been in practice in Christchurch, he went to Wellington. For many years he was a member of the firm of Haughton and Mair. Mr Yates joined the Army immediately on the outbreak of the Second World War. He was seconded to the Sth Field Park Company, Royal New Zealand Engineers, because of bis architectural and engineering qualifications. Mr Yates went overseas with the First Echelon, and when the New Zealand troops arrived in Egypt, General Freyberg wanted swimming baths built for them at their base camp at Maadi. Mr Yates was given .this job, and thus earned the title of “the man who built the Maadi baths." Mr Yates later served in Greece, Egypt and Tunisia.