James Willcock was born in Penzance, Cornwall, in 1938, and attended Cornwall Technical College, Redruth, before winning a County Major Award scholarship to study at the Architectural Association (AA) in 1960. He entered Fourth Year, in the AA Diploma course and for his final year (1961-62) elected to take the option of studying in the AA’s Department of Tropical Studies. James’ thesis project was to design an administrative block and a production building for a proposed new steel works in Onitsha, Nigeria, with the principle aim being to make maximum use of the prevailing winds and to minimise mechanical cooling. James recalls that a model of his design was experimented with “in a primitive wind tunnel to test the ‘venturi’ effect on the building.” One of James’ examiners was Leo De Syllas, who immediately offered him a job with the Architects Co-partnership (ACP). In 63 ACP had been appointed by the World Bank as part of a design consortium to set out the design standards for Secondary Schools in Tunisia and to construct prototype schools in the three different climatic areas of Tunisia, - Coastal, Dessert and Mountain. Willcock was to work on this project and was in Tunisia until 1965, liaising with the Tunisian government on the implementation of the project. Tragically, Leo de Syllas and two other members of the team were killed in a road accident near Le Kef in 1965. For three years, from 1967, Willcock was then employed by the Kenneth Scott Partnership, working in Accra, Ghana, before returning to the UK and subsequently being appointed as an associate with Faulkner-Brown Hendy Watkinson Stonor (now FaulknerBrowns), a Newcastle upon Tyne-based practice specialising in libraries and leisure facilities.

 Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1961-62. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Membership Register, 1969, 1971
• England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Reference: Volume 5c, Page 253
• Personal Correspondence. James Wilcock to Edward Bottoms, 2nd December, 2022.
• RIBA Directory, 1985. Royal Institute of British Architects, 1985, p.M-361