Obituary: James Dinwoodie, architect, pupil of Basil Spence, lecturer and genealogist with passion for Scottish history

Jim was an only child, born in Tranent but moved at an early age to Dalkeith Road in Edinburgh. His father owned and ran Ventnor Market garden and nurseries in nearby Ventnor Terrace, now built over with housing.

Jim attended Royal High and showed his aptitude for his later profession of architect by winning the dux in art. He started his training as an architect just before the outbreak of the Second World War.

He was apprenticed to a small architectural practice in Rutland Square which was run by two young partners: William Kinnimonth and Basil Spence, later Sir Basil Spence, one of the greatest British architects of the 20th century – not a bad person to learn from.

It was while working there that he met Ina McTaggart, later to become his wife, who worked at an office close to Rutland Square.

His was the generation of young men, those in their late teens and early twenties, who were first called up to serve in the war and which suffered the highest level of casualities. One third of Jim’s classmates at Royal High were killed in the war.

His chances of being part of that group were greatly lessened when the Singapore-bound troop ship in which he was travelling was diverted at the last minute as the colony fell to the Japanese.

He served two years as a lieutenant and then captain in the Royal Engineers in India before postings to the Middle East and, in 1944, joining the allied campaign in Italy. He was at Monte Casino, scene of one of the fiercest battles of the war.

After the war, Jim completed his architectural studies at Edinburgh College of Art and, in December 1947, he married Ina – setting up home in Queensferry Road.

Money was very tight in those austere post-war days and they were starting a family. Jim received an unexpected bonus of £50 from work – a lot of money then. However, he always had a certain occasional flamboyance and a keen interest in art. Ina was less than impressed when he came home from work and told her he’d spent the lot on a painting that caught his eye.

Always practical, Jim designed and built the family home in Maidencraig Crescent in the early 1950s before moving briefly to Stirling, where he had a spell with the county council. One of his projects was the design of Falkirk Technical College. There followed several years with James Millar & Co before he accepted an appointment as senior lecturer at Edinburgh Art College about the time it became incorporated with Heriot Watt University. He taught several generations of aspiring architects there until his late sixties.

At the same time as teaching, and conscious of the need to keep his own professional skills fully up to date, he set up and ran his own architectural practice until the early 1980s.

As his full-time involvement in architecture diminished he took up genealogy. This was long before computers and the current fascination with the subject. He established his one-man business, researching family trees for clients in the UK, Canada and USA mainly. This was work which he continued well into his eighties.

Church and faith were very important to him. He was a lifelong member and elder of Palmerston Place. He made a considerable personal contribution to the church’s running and activities, and as a very practical architect his services were very much in demand.

His voluntary work also included many years as a National Trust guide in the Georgian House in Edinburgh. A highlight for Jim was to provide a personal tour for Princess Grace of Monaco when she visited the city.

He was an Edinburgh man, a proud Scot and his interest and knowledge of the history and architecture of his native city and country was extensive. He enjoyed sharing this knowledge with others, particularly visitors to the city.

He was modest and unpretentious with a keen sense of humour, particularly where the joke was at his own expense. A perfect example of all these aspects occurred when he was on an academic exchange to a university in the United States some years ago. He offered to give a lecture on the castles of Mar in north-east Scotland, which he had been researching. Unfortunately and unbeknown to Jim, the printer made an error, adding an “s” to Mar.

So the lecture was titled The Castles of Mars – an audio-visual presentation. He was pleasantly surprised at how full the lecture theatre was.

The members of the UFO society had turned up, and he found their loud groans of disappointment quite offputting as they quickly realised they were not going to hear about some exciting development regarding the existence of life on the Red Planet, but rather the notable architectural features of castles Fraser, Huntly and more.

Jim was predeceased by Ina in 2005 and is survived by his children, Iain, Anne and Kenneth and his grandchildren Christopher, Michele, Ailsa and Ross.