Ivan Clarkson

Ivan Marcus Clarkson was born in Wellington on 14 September 1901, the day after his parents, an older brother, and aunt had arrived from England by boat. The family moved to Taihape where his father, Percy Wise Clarkson, had been appointed as vicar, albeit to a congregation without a vicarage or church. The family spent a year living in a canvas tent while the buildings were constructed. The 1-year-old Ivan contracted Rheumatic Fever during this time, which led to later heart issues, and three younger sisters were also born. Clarkson attended Taihape Primary School, then King’s College in Auckland.

In 1915, when Ivan was in his early teens, his father joined an Auckland regiment as a chaplain and travelled with them to Egypt and Gallipoli, but the experience was cut short when he was invalided home in August 1915. On his return to Auckland Clarkson Snr. briefly worked as a farmer before relocating with his wife and two youngest daughters to Laguna Beach, California where he became an American Catholic, and eventually Primate, and built what the Guiness Book of Records records as the world’s smallest cathedral: St Francis on the sea, created out of rubble from the 1931/2 San Francisco earthquake.

In the meantime Ivan remained in New Zealand with his immediately-younger sister Cecily, who studied medicine in Dunedin and later became New Zealand’s first medical Dame: Dame Cecily Pickerill. In the 1920s he attended the Thames School of Mines where he studied surveying and possibly drafting, before relocating to Dunedin where he worked for the architectural firm Mandeno & Fraser while studying for exams extramurally (likely through the University of Auckland).

During the depression years he taught art (and possibly technical drawing) at Otago Boys’ High School during the day and worked at the Regent Theatre ticket office in the evenings.

In 1931 he submitted a series of designs for postage stamps to the government's postal department (submitted as 'The Spider'). Although they were unaccepted at the time, the set is now in the collection of Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. At the time he was listed as a ‘writer, Dunedin’. In 1933 he married Celia Bolton, whom he had met while working at the Regent Theatre, and the two later welcomed two daughters Fae (b.1934) and Keren (b.1938).

The family moved to Lower Hutt, Wellington in 1940 when Clarkson was appointed Chief Architect for the New Zealand Railways, a role that saw him producing designs for numerous railway and bus stations throughout the country. Clarkson’s daughter notes that these included refreshment rooms where passengers could stop during long journeys to get a cup of tea, a pie, or "soggy" tomato sandwiches. He is recorded as having worked on stations including Melling, Petone, Rotorua, Porirua, Palmerston North, Arthur's Pass, Timaru, Masterton, Hawera, Hamiton, and Taupo.

Alongside his role with the NZ Railways he took on some part-time jobs for some extra income, including teaching Architectural Construction at the Wellington School of Architecture and Town Planning (c.1949), painting his sister Cecily’s hospital in Lower Hutt, and calligraphic work for Karitane Nurses’ Diplomas. He was also an Associate of the New Zealand Institute of Architects and later a Fellow.

In the early 1950s his role with the Railways enabled him to travel to the USA to study and compare railway architecture (and also to visit his family). He stayed with the Railways until his retirement in the later 1960s. The Arthur's Pass Station was one of his last designs, and regarded by the family as his 'masterpiece'.

Upon retiring from the NZ Railways he acted as the Caretaker for Eastern Hutt School. He also undertook a return visit to the USA, and spent time caravanning around New Zealand with his family (which by this stage included grandchildren). He died in 1978 of a heart attack, having suffered from angina for many years, likely due to complications from the Rheumatic Fever he had contracted as an infant.

See also:

• Ivan Clarkson: Person | Overview and related information (Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand)