Late Victorian
Sir Ninian Comper, the church architect and stained glass designer, was ninety on June 10th. He is thirty years younger physically and mentally and still in practice. The glorious churches of St. Mary's Wellingborough, St. Cyprian's Clarence Gate, St. Philip's Cosham, are well known examples of his work. Golden altars, rose-pink hangings and windows by him may be found all over the country. He lives in a house of stucco Gothic on the height of Beulah Hill, which had seven acres of garden, until last year Croydon Borough seized most of it for a recreation ground. But Sir Ninian didn't seem to mind. He said, " Perhaps one day a French team will come and play rugger here and I will be able to carry wine down to them." At a dinner given in his honour this week, all shades of opinion met. The Roman Catholic Abbot of Downside, the Provost of Derby, the Duke of Wellington, Tom Driberg, Sir Kenneth Clark, Sir Edward Maufe, Sir Ninian's architect son, his great- nephew and many friends, lay and clerical. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott proposed the toast of this great survivor of a Victorian tradition who has slowly evolved a style of his own, Classic and Gothic mixed. Unity by inclusion,' as he calls it.
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