Thomas Fuller

Thomas Fuller (March 8, 1823 – September 28, 1898) was an English-born Canadian architect. From 1881 to 1896, he was Chief Dominion Architect for the Government of Canada, during which time he played a role in the design and construction of every major federal building. Early life and education Fuller was born on March 8, 1823, in Bath, Somerset, England, where he trained as an architect with James Wilson (becoming a pupil of Wilson's in 1844) alongside his future architectural business partner William Bruce Gingell. His father, also called Thomas, was a carriage-maker, and his mother was Mary Filler (née Tiley). Career While living in Bath and London, he did a number of architectural projects, with Wilson (with whom he went into partnership in 1854), with Gingell (working as Fuller and Gingell from 1848 to 1850) or on his own account. In 1845, he left for Antigua, where he spent two years working on the new St John's Cathedral, before emigrating to Canada in 1857. Settling in Toronto, he formed a partnership with Chilion Jones in which Fuller was responsible for design work. The company first won the contract to design Toronto's Church of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields. In 1859, the Legislative Assembly in Ottawa voted the sum of £75,000 for the erection of a "Parliament House" and offered a premium of $1000 for the best design within that budget. The winning bid was made by Fuller and Jones for a Neo-Gothic design. The principal architects until its completion in 1866 were Thomas Fuller and Charles Baillairge. In Hand Book to the Parliamentary and Departmental Buildings, Canada (1867), Joseph Bureau wrote, "The corner stone was laid with great ceremony by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales [the future king Edward VII] in September, 1860, on which occasion the rejoicings partook of the nature of the place, the lumber arches and men being a novelty to most of its visitors, bullocks and sheep were roasted whole upon the government ground and all comers were feasted."