W. D. Caröe

British architect (1857–1938)

William Douglas Caröe (1 September 1857 – 25 February 1938) was a British architect, particularly of churches.

Caröe was born on 1 September 1857 in Holmsdale, Blundellsands, near Liverpool, the youngest son of the Danish Consul in Liverpool, Anders Kruuse Caröe (d. 1897) and Jane Kirkpatrick Green (d. 1877). He was educated at Ruabon Grammar School in Denbighshire, Wales, before entering Trinity College, Cambridge in 1875. and graduated with a BA in the same year. He was articled to John Loughborough Pearson and would later write the article on Pearson in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed., 1911).

Caröe was a major figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement and described as a "master of spatial painting". The firm he founded, Caroe & Partners, still specialises in ecclesiastical architecture, especially the restoration of historic churches. Caröe was architect to numerous ecclesiastical buildings including St Davids and Durham cathedrals, and Tewkesbury and Romsey abbeys. Although he primarily made his name in church architecture, he was also the architect for the 1905–1909 Main Building of University College Cardiff (now Cardiff University), which was inspired by his alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge. Caröe designed additions to his country house, Vann in Hambledon, Surrey. The house was featured in the TV series The Curious House Guest in 2006. No. 1 Millbank, London, was built for the Church Commissioners in 1903.

He married Grace Desborough (d.1947), with whom he had two sons and a daughter. The couple's elder son was (Sir) Olaf Kirkpatric Kruuse Caröe (1892–1981), who became an Indian administrator; then came a daughter, Christian Desborough Caröe (1894–1973); and finally a second son, Alban Douglas Rendall Caröe (1904–1991), who followed his father's footsteps in architecture.