John is an architectural and business historian, author, photographer and artist. He spent twenty years at the University of Strathclyde lecturing on economic and industrial history, before taking up the role of Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments, and later Historic Buildings at Historic Scotland. He was Chief Inspector of Historic Buildings there until his retirement in 1999, when he became Chairperson of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, a post he held until 2015, when the Commission merged with Historic Scotland, becoming Historic Environment Scotland.

He holds honorary professorships from the University of Glasgow and the University of St Andrews, has authored multiple articles, books and other publications about Scotland’s industrial and ecclesiastical built heritage. He donated his collection of over 40,000 photographs of Scottish buildings to HES Archives and has created the many hundreds of wonderful line drawings of church buildings that he kindly allowed us to use in our guide books and on member church pages on this site.

He has been heavily involved with the activities of SCT and of both of our parent charities for decades and became an Honorary Vice-President of our Trust in 2022.