Walter M. Keesey

Walter Monckton Keesey was an English architect, artist, and etcher, born in Croydon, Surrey, on June 16, 1887. He studied at Woolwich School of Art and the Royal College of Art, and early in his career taught at the Architectural Association. Alongside architecture, he built a long record as an exhibiting artist, showing drawings, watercolours, and etchings at the Royal Academy over many decades.

His life also included military service in the First World War. He joined the Royal Engineers in 1914, served mostly in France and later in Italy, and was awarded the Military Cross; he left the army with the rank of Major. After the war he returned to teaching and architectural work, later serving as His Majesty’s Inspector for Art. He was appointed OBE in 1950 for services to art.

As a writer, Keesey is remembered for a small group of illustrated topographical books published in the 1910s, including volumes on Cambridge, Harrow, and Canterbury. Those books reflect the same strengths seen across his wider career: a sharp eye for buildings, a fondness for historic places, and an ability to make architecture feel vivid and human.