Stanley Fearn

Stanley Fearn was a high profile Wellington architect who formed an award-winning partnership with Austin Quick (1886 – 1916).  The partnership won the inaugural NZIA Gold Medal Award for its design of the Salvation Army William Booth Memorial Training College and the partners formed a brief collaboration with William Gray Young immediately before WW1. The informal partnership was dissolved when the three volunteered for military service. Stanley Fearn served in Egypt, France and Belgium, attaining the rank of Second Lieutenant before his return to New Zealand in 1919. Gray Young was found unfit for service, and Austin Quick saw service in Egypt and Gallipoli and was killed in action in France in 1916.

Stanley Fearn was born in London in 1887 and trained as an architect with Blow and Billary. He commenced practice in New Zealand 1912 and worked with William Beynon Austin Quick from 1913. After discharge from military service, Stanley Fearn re-joined William Gray Young as a partner.  This partnership dissolved in 1923 when Fearn established his own architectural practice.

Fearn had an interest in architectural education and was a prominent member of the NZIA. His influence on the career of Amyas Connell (1901-1980) has an international dimension. Connell later founded the influential London-based practice of Connell Ward Lucas, and attributed part of his success to his training by Fearn. Stanley Fearn continued in practice until the 1960s and is known for his work in a range of styles from English Vernacular to the Modernism. His son Detmar was also an architect.
 

Image: Stanley Fearn in "Conference of Delegates from New Zealand Art Societies" Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20052, 7 October 1930

Sources:

Fowler, Michael. 'Young, William Gray - Biography', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 17-Jan-12  URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/4y3/1

Mew, Geoff & Adrian Humphris. “Raupo to Deco: Wellington Styles and Architects 1840 – 1940” (Wellington: Steel Roberts Aotearoa, 2014) 

“Stanley Fearn”, NZHPT Professional Biographies (c.2012)

Von Haast, H.F. “William Beynon Austin Quick” in The Spike or Victoria University College Review, 1916