Architect born in Liverpool, the eldest son of Edmund and Catherine Kirby, educated first at Sedgley Park School near Wolverhampton and then at Oscott College, Birmingham. Kirby was a Roman Catholic and in about 1851–52 was introduced to the Roman Catholic convert, A.W.N. Pugin, who arranged for him to be articled to his son, E.W. Pugin (who was only three years older than Kirby). He remained with E.W. Pugin for five years, probably between 1855 and 1860, at first in Birmingham and then in London. Around 1858–60 he studied at the Royal Academy Schools. He then joined the staff of John Hardiman and Co, the Birmingham metalwork and stained glass manufacturers, but later moved to Chester to work under the architect John Douglas. Kirby opened his own office in Liverpool in 1867 and in the same year was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA; Fellow, FRIBA, in 1888). Although working in Liverpool, he lived in Birkenhead, where his first notable client was George Rae, the banker and patron of the Pre-Raphaelites. He designed Rae’s Birkenhead home, Redcourt, in 1876–79, together with several other huge red brick houses, notable for their tall chimneys and free, dramatic massing. He also designed the Queen Victoria Monument, 1904–05, for Hamilton Square, Birkenhead. In 1905 his two sons, Francis Joseph Kirby (1873–1945) and Edmund Bertram Kirby (1881–1953), the former a surveyor, the latter an architect, became partners in the practice, which subsequently operated as Edmund Kirby and Sons. One of the largest and most successful architectural practices in Liverpool with a particular appeal to Roman Catholic institutions, it designed most of the Catholic churches in the Diocese of Shrewsbury (covering Cheshire, Shropshire, and parts of Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Derbyshire). Also by Kirby and Sons is the King Edward VII Memorial Clock Tower, 1911–12, in Clifton Crescent, Birkenhead. As was the case with many of the practice’s churches, the sculpture on the memorial was executed by Richard Boulton and Sons of Cheltenham. Edmund Kirby was a member of the Council of the RIBA and, between 1906 and 1908, President of the Liverpool Architectural Society. He retired in 1917.
Bibliography: Architects of Greater Manchester 1800–1940 (website): ‘Edmund Kirby’; The Builder, 21 May 1920, p. 598 (obituary); Edmund Kirby and Sons 1868–1968, Souvenir Brochure (copy in Liverpool Record Office, ref. 720 KIR 262-3); J. Freeman, W.D. Caröe, Manchester, 1990, pp. 6–7; Liverpool Daily Post, 26 April 1920 (obituary); C. Martin, A Glimpse of Heaven: Catholic Churches of England and Wales, Swindon, 2006, pp. 84–85, 92, 116–17, 151; E. Morris and E. Roberts, Public Sculpture of Cheshire and Merseyside, Liverpool, 2012, pp. xxiv, xxv, 20–21, 26–27; R. O’Donnell, ‘The Later Pugins’, in P. Atterbury and C. Wainwright (eds.), Pugin, A Gothic Passion (Victoria and Albert Museum), London, 1994, p. 261; Queen Victoria Memorial, Birkenhead: Souvenir, Birkenhead, 1905.
Emma Roberts, 2012; revised, Terry Cavanagh, October 2025
