Thomas Cubitt

Thomas Cubitt (25 February 1788 – 20 December 1855), born Buxton, Norfolk, was the leading master builder in London in the second quarter of the 19th century, and also carried out several projects in other parts of England.

Background

The son of a Norfolk carpenter, he journeyed to India as ship's carpenter from which he earned sufficient funds to start his own building firm in 1810 on Gray's Inn Road, London where he was one of the first builders to have a 'modern' system of employing all the trades under his own management.

Work

Cubitt's first major building was the London Institution in Finsbury Circus, built in 1815. After this he worked primarily on speculative housing at Camden Town, Islington, and especially at Highbury Park, Stoke Newington (now part of Hackney).

His development of areas of Bloomsbury, including Gordon Square and Tavistock Square, began in 1820, for a group of landowners including the Duke of Bedford.

He was commissioned in 1824 by Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster, to create a great swathe of building in Belgravia centred on Belgrave Square and Pimlico, in what was to become his greatest achievement in London. Notable amongst this development are the north and west sides of Eaton Square, which exemplify Cubitt's style of building and design.

Thomas Cubitt (British Army officer)

General Sir Thomas Astley Cubitt, KCB, CMG, DSO (9 April 1871 – 19 May 1939) was a British Army officer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who commanded a division in the First World War and in retirement served as Governor of Bermuda.

Cubitt was the youngest son of a family of rural gentry in Norfolk, who joined the Royal Artillery in 1891. He requested colonial service, and spent five years in Africa, where he was involved in the creation of the West African Frontier Force and served in a number of campaigns in northern Nigeria. Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, he was appointed as Deputy Commissioner in Somaliland, where he mounted a series of campaigns against the Dervish State.

He requested a transfer to the Western Front in 1916, and commanded an infantry battalion and a brigade before being promoted to take command of 38th (Welsh) Division in early 1918. He led the division until the Armistice, with marked success. Following the war, he held a series of peacetime commands in Germany, Egypt, and England, before being made Governor of Bermuda in 1931. He held this position until 1936, when he retired.