Horatio Walter Lonsdale [also known as Horatio Walker Lonsdale; and as H.W. Lonsdale] was born in Guanajuato, Mexico on 10 November 1844 to English parents. He moved to England with his widowed mother in c.1851. After studying architecture at the Royal Academy Schools in London from 1865 to c.1868, he was employed as an assistant by William Burges (1827-1881). He subsequently worked with Burges for many years, collaborating on numerous commissions including Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork, Eire, Cardiff Castle, Castell Coch in Cardiff, and various churches in Yorkshire.

In addition to his architectural work, Lonsdale designed stained glass for Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and W. G. Saunders and created decorative schemes for churches, including wall paintings.

One of Burges's major patrons was the 3rd Marquesses of Bute and following the death of Burges in 1881, Lonsdale continued to receive commissions from him for several years. He designed windows and a ceiling for Mount Stuart House, the ancestral home of the Marquesses in Bute, Scotland, and in 1900 created a silver casket to hold the heart of the Marquesses during its journey to Jerusalem where it was buried.

Lonsdale exhibited once at the Royal Academy in 1886. In 1887 he was elected a member of the Art Workers Guild and was a founder member of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1887, exhibiting in their exhibitions at the New Gallery, London in 1888 and 1889.

He wrote two books on perspective - Perspective of Shadows (1912) and Inverse Perspective (1915).

Lonsdale's address was given as 53 Clarendon Road, London in 1871; 3 St. Stephen's Road, London in 1874, 30 Great James Street, London in 1875; 26 Bedford Row, London in 1886; 82, Portsdown Road, Paddington, London in 1901; and 3 John Street, Bedford Row, London in 1911 and 1919. He died at 15 Dalmorton Road, New Brighton, Cheshire on 8 September 1919 and was buried in Teddington, of Richmond upon Thames, Surrey.

A biographical file on Horatio Walter Lonsdale is available on request at the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London.

_{Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)}