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Louis Leighton Robertson (b. 1 February 1897, d. 17 December 1966)

Louis Leighton Robertson (son of Louis Spier Robertson and Elizabeth Frances(Lily) Leighton) was born 1 February 1897 in The Range, Rockhampton, Qld, Australia, and died 17 December 1966 in Turramurra Private Hospital, Sydney, Australia. He married Hazel Myee Josephson on 2 June 1925 in St Phillips, Church Hill, Sydney(Reg. No.: 5149), daughter of Joshua Percy Josephson and Eliza Judita Marina.

Notes for Louis Leighton Robertson:
Education: Gordon Public School and Boys Grammar, Sydney

Height: 6ft 1in

Complexion: Fair

Weight: 10 stone 8 pounds

Eye Colour: Grey

Hair: Fair

Religion: Anglican

Distinctive Marks: Mole over left nipple

Lived: 52 Dural Street, Hornsby(except for years of overseas service in World War 1)

Louis was an architect with his father, Louis Spier Robertson.

Louis died of a cerebral haemorrhage.

Buried/cremated: Northern Suburbs Crematorium, North Ryde on December 19, 1966, and his ashes are in the army (WW1) wall.

On the front cover of WW1 bugle sheet music was Louis playing the bugle.

Certificate of Discharge:

No: 668

Rank: Gunner

Regiment or Corps: 1st Australian Siege Battery

Attested at: Sydney, NSW on 27 December 1915 for the Australian Imperial Expeditionary Forces Regiment or Corps at the age of 18 years 11 months

Date of Embarkation from Australia: 9 April 1916

He was discharged in consequence of Termination of his period of Enlistment

Medals: Military Medal(received it in 1919)

He served 3 years and 166 days

Excerpts taken from Architecture January-March 1954

From Rockhampton, Louis S. Robertson brought to Sydney his son, the third of his name, Louis Leighton Robertson, who is now 56 years old and who has been the principal of the firm of Louis S Robertson and Son since the death of his father in 1932. Louis L Robertson, t he present incumbent of the firm is an architect with a deservedly wide practice, unruffled, known and well-liked all along east coast of Australia, in Darwin and the Fiji Islands.

Although Robertson now gets to his more distant jobs by plane rather than by car, it is doubtful if there is any country road in New South Wales that has not seen the amiable figure of Louis L Robertson driving along easily - but with nerve-racking rapidity - to one or other of his out-of-town jobs. Concurrently with his city practice he shares in a practice in Narrandera which was founded about 1909 by John Hill Robertson, who still takes an interest in the matters.

In the 1930's when most Australian architects were still playing with intercolumnation, pillasters, antae, and other manifestations of the, by then, architectural decadence, Louis L Robertson was experimenting with new thought. His various crematoria in the Sydney suburbs and at Newcastle, although now dated, were courageous attempts at new forms in clean white walls with confident, if over-studied, detail.

In this spirit in 1937 he designed amongst the innumerable branch banks to come from his drawing board, the Bank of New South Wales in Fiji, which brought simplicity of line to Suva's otherwise fevered architecture, even if the building does show the too evident influence of the then current Architectural Forum. Like all Robertson buildings, the bank is soundly constructed. Although it is founded on piles sunk in typical island mud, the Fiji earthquake of 1953 did no more than heave the building up bodily so that there is now an undesigned extra 4" step from surrounding ground into the entrances.

Another branch of the same firm designed by Louis L Robertson of which the shell only now remains, was that at Darwin. When in the late Japanese war a near-miss did no more than drive out the lock of the front door, the enemy appeared piqued and on the next raid gave the building the full treatment of a 500 lb. bomb so that the bank went out of business. The early promise of these buildings has been maintained and the contemporary Robertson architecture is nothing if not of today. A large and always growing clientele testifies that the buildings are of the well-studied kind which makes them eminently useful, that prime requirement of all architecture.

Louis also designed what was the Goulburn Boys Home(is now the Police Academy); Westpac bank in Bowral

Louis never wanted to be an architect, but his father insisted he should.

Louis is survived by wife Hazel and daughters Janet and Rosamund.

He had a drink out of the Davis Cup.

More About Louis Leighton Robertson and Hazel Myee Josephson:
Marriage: 2 June 1925, St Phillips, Church Hill, Sydney(Reg. No.: 5149).

Marriage Notes for Louis Leighton Robertson and Hazel Myee Josephson:
bridesmaids:
Groomsmen:

Children of Louis Leighton Robertson and Hazel Myee Josephson are:

+Corinne Janet Robertson.
+Rozamund Anne Robertson, b. 11 March 1930, 7 Cranbrook Avenue, Roseville(now Lindfield), d. 1 January 1994, Mater Hospital, Crows Nest, NSW, Australia.