Robin Halliday Macartney FRIBA (22 May 1911 – 4 October 1973) was a British architect, painter and illustrator. Today he is mainly remembered as the designer of four book covers for Agatha Christie, who immortalized him as "Mac" in her archaeological memoir Come, Tell Me How You Live. Macartney began his working life as excavation architect in the Near East and then entered the service of the Public Works Department. He was active in Cyprus, Sierra Leone and Nyasaland before retiring to Portugal. Two of his buildings have since become presidential residences.

Early life and training

Macartney was born in Kashgar, China, to Sir George Macartney and Catherine Macartney, née Borland. He was the grandson of Halliday Macartney and younger brother of Eric Borland Macartney (1903-1994), a banker who served as Flight Lieutenant with the RAF in Iraq, Persia and Italy during the war,Supplement to the London Gazette, 8 January 1943, p. 220. and of Sylvia Theodora Macartney (1906-1950), who studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music.Royal Academy of Music. Prize List, July 1929, p. 15.

In Kashgar, the family lived at Chini Bagh, the British consulate, where Sir George acted as consul-general. In 1915 Lady Macartney and the children returned to Britain.Lady Macartney 1931, p. 217 ff. After Sir George's retirement in 1918, the family settled on the Isle of Jersey where they lived at Les Vaux, St. Saviour's and later at 4 Overseas Flats, Dicq Road, St Saviour. From 1922, Robin attended Victoria College in St Helier.Index to Victoria College Register: 1852-1929, retrieved 22 May 2023.

In 1929 Macartney moved to 13 Upper Hornsey Rise (renamed Hillrise Road in 1936) in London, where in October he enrolled for a five-year full-time course at the Architectural Association in Bedford Square.RIBA Nomination Papers, 1936. In July 1934 he graduated with an honours diploma and was awarded a draughtsmanship prize.RIBA Nomination Papers, 1945. In the same year, he was among the candidates that were admitted by the Faculty of Architecture of the British School at Rome to the competition for the Rome scholarship in architecture, the prestigious Rome Prize, which was awarded to F. A. C. Maunder (1908-1972).The Scotsman, 28 February 1934, p. 15. Macartney gained practical experience as assistant to Messrs. Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie from June to September 1933 and later in the winter of 1936–37 to Messrs. E. W. Armstrong and O. A. Bayne, followed by three months with R. C. D. Boger. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1936, his proposers being E. W. Armstrong, John Grey and Howard Robertson,Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 1935, p. 320. and a Fellow in 1945.The Architect's Journal; vol. 102, 1945, p. 126.

Archaeological architect

R. H. Macartney had a lifelong interest in archaeology. His parents had entertained collectors, travellers and explorers as guests in Kashgar and helped them to obtain Chinese antiques.Lady Macartney 1931, pp. 55-58. He had grown up with his father's own collection and later inherited a part which is now in the British Museum.The British Museum, Robin Halliday Macartney, see related objects. Therefore, he seized the opportunity when in 1934 Max Mallowan was looking for an architect to accompany him and his wife Agatha Christie to Syria. Mallowan used to choose his architects from the fresh graduates of the Architectural Association,Mallowan 2001, p. 104. and his decision was backed by the recommendation of Sir Aurel Stein, a close friend of Macartney's father.McCall, 2001, p. 100; Trümpler, 1999, p. 204, n. 11. Mallowan was happy with his choice: Macartney, he says, was "a man endowed with a cast-iron stomach and few words, assets that I have always regarded as indispensable on a survey." For the next four years, Macartney moved from dig to dig in the Near East, assisting with the excavations and drawing finds, maps, plans and sections.M. E. L. Mallowan, "Excavations at Brak and Chagar Bazar”, in: Iraq, vol. 9, London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1947, p. 8.

During the Habur Survey in November and December 1934 in Syria, the Mallowans and Macartney examined sixty-two tells to decide where to dig.Trümpler 1999, p. 177, Sketch Map of the Habur Region Showing Talls Examined By The Expedition by R. H. Macartney. The final choice fell on Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak which Mallowan excavated from 1935 to 1938. Macartney was with him during the first and third season and also for the last few weeks of the second season in 1936.For two photos of Macartney at Chagar Bazar, one with Agatha Christie and Alexander Henderson Burn (1885-1945), aka the Colonel, see Scharnagel 2021, at min. 45:25-44.

In Chagar Bazar, Macartney got his first chance to put his architectural skills to use. He had already built a mud-brick lavatory for Agatha Christie in the courtyard of the rented house in Amuda which served as dig house for much of the first season.Christie Mallowan 2012, p. 83. Now he designed an expedition house together with the Mallowans, who were very pleased with the result. It consisted of a series of five rooms with a large domed central room which served as living- and working-room. Although symmetrical in layout, the outside was asymmetrical: stepped buttresses on the right, a row of pointed arches on the left. Originally, this row was meant to be part of a cloister, adding to the ecclesiastical appearance of the building, but the other three sides were never built.Mallowan 2001, p. 116. See also Trümpler 1999, p. 184, for Macartney's section drawing of the house. This house, situated to the south-east of the mound, was erected in 1935 within two weeksSee Scharnagel 2021, min. 28:00-28:22 and 30:22 for pictures of the construction and Agatha Christie's film footage of the completed house. and survived for about twenty years before "dying a natural death".Mallowan 2001, p. 117. Today a brick house occupies the site.Trümpler 1999, p. 296. The expedition house already displayed several characteristics of Macartney's later work: it had two wings and buttresses, it was inspired by vernacular architecture – here: the beehive houses of Syria –,Kat. Trümpler 1999, p. 182, fig. Beehive Houses near Ras el-Ain, North Syria, drawing by R. H. Macartney, 1935. it was designed based on the needs of the residents, it took climate into consideration and it blended harmoniously into its surroundings. Agatha Christie loved the light and airy houseFor a view of the interior, see Dora Altounyan's painting of Agatha Christie of 1936 at Greenway House. and put it on the cover of her archaeological memoir Come, Tell Me How You Live.Christie Mallowan 2012, pp. 112, 122.

Macartney not only assisted Max Mallowan, but also took part in three other excavations. Immediately after the Habur Survey he was in Palestine at Shivta and also possibly early in 1936 at Auja-el-Hafir, the ancient town of Nessana, with the Colt Expedition under the direction of Harris Dunscombe Colt (1901-1973).RIBA Nomination Papers, 1945; Christie Mallowan 2012, pp. 77, 113; McCall 2001, p. 107. He possibly replaced the architect Irving Brown, see Colt's letter to the Director of the Department of Antiquities in Jerusalem of Sept 7th, 1934. Unfortunately, nearly all excavation records were destroyed in 1938 in a fire so that his participation has gone unnoticed.For a summary of the excavation at Shivta see "Isbeita”, in: The Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine, Vol. 5, 1935, p. 198 f. In the summer of 1936 and 1937, Macartney was with Winifred Lamb at Kusura in Turkey where he acted as site architect and drew the finds as well as maps, plans and sections for the publication.Winifred Lamb, "Excavations at Kusura near Afyon Karahisar”, in: Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, vol. 86, 1937, pp. 1-64; Winifred Lamb, “Excavations at Kusura near Afyon Karahisar: II”, in: Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, vol. 87, 1938, pp. 217-273. After the second season in Kusura, one member of Lamb's team, James Rivers Barrington Stewart, conducted his own excavation at Bellapais-Vounous in Cyprus. Macartney went with him and assisted him in 1937 and 1938, drawing "the majority of the cult vessels and a number of the smaller pots, and upon his style of drawing all further work was based. His advice was frequently sought and generously given on subjects connected with draughtsmanship."Eleanor and James Stewart, Vounous, 1937-38: Field Report of the Excavations sponsored by the British School of Archaeology at Athens, Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Rom, XIV, Lund: Gleerup, 1950, p. 7. Stewart was also helped by Macartney with technical information about the manufacture of a wooden bottle.J. R. Stewart, "A Turkish Water Bottle", in: Antiquity, Vol. 11, issue 44, December 1937, pp. 482-483.

In August and September 1936, Macartney used his spare time to travel in Turkey, Greece and Germany and published an article about the city of Ankara in the following year. Ankara had become the new Turkish capital in 1923. After large parts had burned down in 1917, the city was redesigned and rebuilt by German and Austrian architects. Macartney gave a critical appraisal of the results. While "On the whole, the general disposition of the buildings and lay-out of the streets seems to be quite good", he says of the administrative quarter that "the whole thing is on such an enormous scale that it is quite impossible to appreciate the way in which the various vistas and axes are handled. It is all so rigid that the buildings seem to have been forced into the ground." Furthermore, the large windows and flat roofs of the new government buildings "are rather a mistake in view of the very extreme type of climate of central Turkey".Macartney 1937, p. 1173.

O. G. S. Crawford, pioneer of aerial archaeology and editor of the journal Antiquity, was a frequent visitor of James and Eleanor Stewart at Vounous.Crawford 1955, p 245 f. In 1936 he had bought a bit of land in nearby Kyrenia, where he wanted to build a house for his retirement.Crawford 1955, p. 237 f. As architect he chose Macartney.Crawford 1955, p. 245. The house was built in 1937–1938. It was an L-shaped single storey house with arched verandahs on three sides in the typical vernacular style. As lintel over the entrance an antique stone with the carving of a vine-scroll was used.Crawford 1955, p. 262. Inside, Macartney decorated the walls with six murals "inspired by the local associations and scenery" like blown-up wall drawings in pen and ink: Aphrodite rising from the sea, the road through the pass to Nicosia, a donkey at a well, horses threshing and oxen plowing, and a very abstract outline of Kyrenia Castle. Crawford never lived in the house. During the war he rented it to tenants and finally sold it. Today it houses a restaurant within a hotel compound. On the side facing the sea, a glazed dining room has been added, and the murals are no longer visible.35°20'15.8"N 33°20'00.6"E According to Crawford, "Macartney made a very good job of it, and subsequently – largely on the strength of this achievement – got an architectural post in the Cyprus government service."

Book covers