Joseph (Joe) Awon was born in Trinidad in 1923 and is recorded arriving in the UK in September 1947 to study architecture at The Polytechnic, Regents Street, London. He graduated with a Diploma in 1952 and subsequently enrolled in the Architectural Association’s Department of Tropical Architecture (DTA) six-month, post-graduate course in 1957-58. He is known to have returned to Trinidad in May 1958, soon after completing the DTA course, but tragically died just five years later, in 1963.

A Mervyn Albert Awon who is also documented as attended the DTA course in 1962 may have been a relative, certainly following a similar route to Joe, studying at the Polytechnic and then staying at the same London address.

Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
• Department of Tropical Architecture, student listing, Otto Koenigsberger Collection, Box OK27, AA Archives
• Architectural Association Council Minutes Books, 25th February, 1957, p133. AA Archives
• The National Archives, Kew, England, UK; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Inwards Passenger Lists; Class: Bt26; Piece: 1222; Item: 75
• The National Archives, Kew, England; BT27 Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists; Reference Number: Series BT27-