Kemp

Kemp, GEORGE MEIKLE, architect, was born at Moorfoot, in Peeblesshire, 26th May 1795, and up to the age of fourteen assisted his father, who was a shepherd. Becoming a carpenter and millwright, he afterwards sought work in England and France, everywhere settling in towns where he could study fresh specimens of Gothic architecture; but his intention of making a tour of Europe was checked by news of his mother's death, and he returned to Scotland in 1826. There he ultimately became a draughtsman in Edinburgh, and executed drawings of Scottish cathedrals for a projected Glasgow publication. This was abandoned, however, as was also a project to complete Glasgow cathedral, for which Kemp had prepared a model; but in 1838 his second design for the Scott Monument at Edinburgh was accepted. It is on this work alone that Kemp's fame rests, for before the completion of his fairy-like structure the architect was drowned in the canal at Edinburgh, on the night of 6th March 1844. See Life by T. Bonnar (1892).