Rattenbury

by Terry Reksten

Ratz" Francis Mawson Rattenbury was only twenty-five years old when he was commissioned to design the new Parliament Buildings for British Columbia, and soon became the most sought after architect in the province. He designed almost every important building of his time in British Columbia, including the Empress Hotel; British Columbia's Government House; court-houses in Vancouver, Nanaimo and Nelson; and Victoria's Crystal Gardens. Rattenbury courted the press his entire career; he thrived on publicity and notoriety, yet in 1930, he left British Columbia and settled into unhappy obscurity in England after a scandalous affair and subsequent marriage to a much younger woman. In 1935, Rattenbury was murdered by his second wife's lover the chauffeur. Released in time to celebrate the centennial of the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, this revised edition examines previously unknown details about Rattenbury's involvement with the Empress Hotel. Terry Reksten also discloses the aftermath of the infamous Rattenbury murder trial, including what happened to the architect's children and George Stoner, the chauffeur convicted of his murder.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History

204 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 1998

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rattenbury was an architect in the early 1900s active in western Canada, most well-known for designing the B.C. Legislature in Victoria, as well as the Empress Hotel in the same city. He was a prickly, combative person, and made more than a few enemies along the way (although some of that seems to have been professional jealousy).

This is an interesting life story, which intersects in different ways with the Klondike Gold Rush, and the sinking of the Titanic.

Another famous —or infamous— development was Rattenbury's affair with a younger woman, which caused such a scandal that they were forced to leave prim and proper Victoria and move to England. This affair, and their marriage (his second, her third) stagnated and rotted into a murder, a suicide, and a life sentence; more about that in Deadly Triangle: The Famous Architect, His Wife, Their Chauffeur, and Murder Most Foul.

This biography was first published in 1978 and, slightly revised, reissued in 1998. I found the material to be more interesting than the presentation.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rattenbury, by Terry Reksten, is a book of adventure, dynamic personalities and insight into the man who was greatly responsible for giving Victoria, British Columbia, its public face. If you stand at the inner harbour in Victoria and look in one direction you will see the Parliament Building that Ratenbury was the architect for; if you look behind you, there stands The Empress Hotel. Just beyond The Empress is the Crystal Garden. Again, Rattenbury was the architect. Indeed, it is difficult to go far in Victoria in any direction without coming to some work, or building, or place that Rattenbury has not left an imprint upon. It is, perhaps, the greatest of tragic ironies that he met his second wife, and thus unleashed Victoria's dislike of him, in The Empress, the very place he had designed. That this meeting would ultimately lead to his scandalous death is also told in this fascinating biography.

There is little that Rattenbury did not brush up against while in Canada. He was involved in the gold rush, and was clever enough not to actually pan for gold but rather realize that all gold miners needed to eat, and so he became involved in the selling of beef and then transporting it to the hungry miners. He was a real estate speculator. He was involved in the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. The railway was to be an Achilles heel for him as the line went bankrupt. Oh well. There was always politics and he also was a politician in Oak Bay.

A messy, public divorce turned the population of Victoria against him so with his new lover, a much younger woman he moved back to England. The good news is he did slowly fade from the public spotlight. The bad news was he also faded from his wife and leaned towards alcohol.

I will not entirely ruin the tale. Suffice to say the death of both himself and his wife was unpleasant. Sadly, one of the structures he could not design and build was a happy ending for his life.

[Carla McIvor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loads of information, a very technical read.

[Alan Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story of the man behind the design of British Columbian landmarks.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written account of the life of Francis Rattenbury, architect of BC's Parliament Buildings. In reading this, I found it amazing how his life was affected by the big stories of his time: the gold rush, sinking of Titanic, and the highly competitive railroad industry. Sadly, the tail end of his life was marred in tragedy; culminating with his murder. They really should make a movie out of this!