CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Edwin Summerhayes

Australian architect

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ81875868
Source-derived summary

Edwin Summerhayes (1868–1944) was an Australian architect, founding member of the West Australian Institute of Architects, and a major in the 44 Infantry Battalion, serving in France from 1916 to 1917.

Summerhayes was born in 1868 in Greenwich, England. He attended Christ College London until he was sixteen, when his family moved to Australia. He was initially articled to James Hill in Adelaide, South Australia, and later William Pitt in Melbourne, Victoria. Summerhayes came to Western Australia in 1894, during the gold rushes, and set up an architectural practice in Coolgardie. He married Florence May Camm in Victoria in 1896, but had returned to Coolgardie by 1897, the year their son Reginald was born.

Within Coolgardie Summerhayes designed buildings such as the Victorian Turkish baths, the Jewish Synagogue, the Presbyterian Church, the Mechanics Institute and the Exhibition Building, but became known for his homestead and villa designs, which were built across Western Australia. He also designed Kobeelya in Katanning, and Rechabite Hall in Perth, his last significant building.

Summerhayes was one of the founding member of the West Australian Institute of Architects in 1896. He was also a Freemason, a member of the Claremont Municipal Council in 1904.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Edwin Summerhayes” as australian architect. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1868, 1944, 1916, 1917—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Edwin, Summerhayes and Australian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as australian architect. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q81875868. The first chronological checks are 1868, 1944, 1916 and 1917.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Edwin Summerhayes”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Edwin Summerhayes primary sources, Edwin Summerhayes archive and Edwin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Edwin Summerhayes”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Edwin Summerhayes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.