Geoffrey had a very hard upbringing. His father who had been in WW1 where he had a very cruel time became brutal in his own right. He used to disciplin his son using a leather revenque. Geoff used to run and hide. Nancy Lawrence Geoffreys only friend in childhood spent all her time with him and used to try and stop Harold from hitting Geoffrey with the whip. She'd kick him in the shins with all her strength. Luckily Harold never hit her. She would try and stare him out with her blue eyes full of anger, shouting at him in both english and spanish. From 3yrs old Geoffrey was forced to find his own food, his father Harold not allowing him any. So Geoff would go out at 6pm to hunt viscachas and partridges to eat hunting at night. Nancy lived most of the time at Geoffrey's place. They'd be armed with 22caliber rifles from before they were a metre high. They'd hide the rifles in a corner and the ammunition in a cupboard. Grass was often higher than they were but being together they weren't frightened of anything. In the morning Nancy would take the viscachas or birds to the house while Geoffrey stayed out in the bush.They were sole mates loving every minute they were together. Geoff got hold of an old cart and would use it to take the diplomats children on tours so he could earn money to go to school. Geoffrey joined WW2 as a volunteer. It was his only way of learning a trade. He would have no future on the estancia if he didn't do something. At 17 Geoffrey was made a gunner onboard a ship in Gibraltar in 1941. He'd write to Nancy every day. He contracted a virus called Dam Dam similar to Dengue fever and was ina coma for 9 mths in India. Was placed onboard the "Corfu" and returned to England. Coming too oboard ship and being told his liver would be shot and may not have long to live. He returned to Argentina finding Nancy was marrying an american.. Not having anything to offer her he let her go.
Geoffrey had a very hard upbringing. His father who had been in WW1 where he had a very cruel time became brutal in his own right. He used to disciplin his son using a leather revenque. Geoff used to run and hide. Nancy Lawrence Geoffreys only friend in childhood spent all her time with him and used to try and stop Harold from hitting Geoffrey with the whip. She'd kick him in the shins with all her strength. Luckily Harold never hit her. She would try and stare him out with her blue eyes full of anger, shouting at him in both english and spanish. From 3yrs old Geoffrey was forced to find his own food, his father Harold not allowing him any. So Geoff would go out at 6pm to hunt viscachas and partridges to eat hunting at night. Nancy lived most of the time at Geoffrey's place. They'd be armed with 22caliber rifles from before they were a metre high. They'd hide the rifles in a corner and the ammunition in a cupboard. Grass was often higher than they were but being together they weren't frightened of anything. In the morning Nancy would take the viscachas or birds to the house while Geoffrey stayed out in the bush.They were sole mates loving every minute they were together. Geoff got hold of an old cart and would use it to take the diplomats children on tours so he could earn money to go to school. Geoffrey joined WW2 as a volunteer. It was his only way of learning a trade. He would have no future on the estancia if he didn't do something. At 17 Geoffrey was made a gunner onboard a ship in Gibraltar in 1941. He'd write to Nancy every day. He contracted a virus called Dam Dam similar to Dengue fever and was ina coma for 9 mths in India. Was placed onboard the "Corfu" and returned to England. Coming too oboard ship and being told his liver would be shot and may not have long to live. He returned to Argentina finding Nancy was marrying an american.. Not having anything to offer her he let her go.
Percy Edwin Alan JOHNSON MARSHALL
He was born 20 January 1915, and studied with Charles Reilly and Patrick Abercrombie at the University of Liverpool. He worked enthusiastically with Donald Gibson on the replanning and reconstruction of Coventry until 1941, when war service with the Royal Engineers interrupted this part of his career. It did, however, lead to a post as governmental advisor on planning and reconstruction to the government of Burma.
Returning to post-war Britain, Percy Johnson-Marshall was employed at the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, where he was involved in framing the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. He then moved to the London County Council as Senior Planner, responsible for London's Comprehensive Development Areas which included the showpiece Lansbury Estate, conceived as model housing for the Festival of Britain. Johnson-Marshall was also active in national and international architectural and planning organisations, ranging from RIBA and RTPI, to the MARS group and the International Centre for Regional Planning and Development, of which he was a founder member.
In 1959 Johnson-Marshall was appointed first as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture in the University of Edinburgh, and then as Professor of Urban Design and Regional Planning. In 1964 he set up Percy Johnson-Marshall and Associates, which produced everything from regional plans to detailed schemes for town centres across the world. In the 1960s, he was increasingly active in international planning, serving as a judge of many international competitions and as a member of the advisory committee for the redevelopment of Les Halles in Paris. He was vice-president of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), the UN consultant on human settlements, and chairman of the Congress on Planning for Metropolitan Cities, held in Mexico City in 1968.
After his death in 1993, Percy Johnson-Marshall's huge collection was stored at various locations in Edinburgh. The material is now being brought together in Edinburgh University Library, alongside the architectural collections of W. H. Playfair, Sir Rowand Anderson, Sir Robert Lorimer, Patrick Geddes and Sir Robert Mathew. It includes books on city design, and planning, bound planning reports, bulletins, pamphlets, and conference reports, long runs of planning and architectural journals, archival photographs and colour slides, plans, maps and storyboards, covering the major projects on which he was engaged.
Duddingston House
Located in Milton Road West, in front of the village of Duddingston, is a superb classical villa built between 1763-8 at the cost of £30,000 by Sir William Chambers (1723 - 1796) and regarded as his finest work.The Duddingston Estate was sold in 1745 by Archibald Campbell, the 3rd Duke of Argyll (1682 - 1761), to James Hamilton, the bachelor 8th Earl of Abercorn, who improved the estate and commissioned Chambers to build the house. The fertility of the estate was due to Sir James Dick, a former Lord Provost of Edinburgh and owner of the neighbouring Prestonfield House, who had taken delivery of manure from the city's streets towards the end of the 17th Century The main house consists of two storeys in pale stone, with a five-window frontage and a quartet of Corinthian columns forming a pedimented portico. Inside there is fine plasterwork, a grand entrance hall and staircase and magnificent fireplaces.
The private apartments are contained in a separate block to the north of the main house, which itself is connected to a further range housing the stables. These blocks were converted to luxury town-houses in the early 1990s.
King Edward VII considered buying Duddingston as his private estate, but bought Sandringham in Norfolk instead. For many years a hotel, it now forms offices for architects Percy Johnson-Marshall and Partners. The surrounding parkland may have been laid out by Capability Brown and now forms Duddingston Golf Course and the grounds of Holy Rood School.