Norman Tarbolton was born in 1912. He gained a BA at the University of Cambridge before achieving his Diploma in Architecture from University College London, around 1938. His wartime activities are not known, but by early 1952, he is recorded as working on two six story blocks of flats in Blythe Road, for the Borough of Hammersmith. The following year, he travelled with his wife to Dar es Salaam, departing from the Port of London on the 6th June, 1952. He appears to have taken up a senior position within the Public Works Department there and was responsible for the design of the Dar Es Salaam International Airport (now the Julius Nyerere International Airport), which opened in 1954. In 1958-59, he returned to the UK to attend the Architectural Association’s (AA) six-month, post-graduate course within the AA’s Department of Tropical Architecture. Upon graduation, he immediately returned to Dar es Salaam, leaving the Port of London on the 14th April, 1959, but details of his subsequent career remain elusive.

Sources

• Architectural Association Council Minutes Books, 23rd February, 1959, p317, AA Archives
• General Register Office; England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, United Kingdom; Volume: 15; Page: 1788
• General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, Volume: 5c; Page: 499
• Principal Probate Registry; London, England; Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England
• The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; BT27 Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists; Reference Number: Series BT27-166617
• The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; BT27 Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists; Reference Number: Series BT27-
• John E. Scrace ‘Two 6 story blocks at Blythe Road, Hammersmith, Municipal Journal Public Works Engineer and Contractors Guide, Vol. 60, part 2, April 18th, 1952, pp804-805
• Arena: The Architectural Association Journal, 1958, Vol 74, p252
• Airport’, pp523-524
• Royal Institute of British Architects, The Kalendar of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 1965, p219