Sir Basil Spence (1907-76) began his architectural career in Edinburgh in the 1930s, working with William Kininmonth and Balfour Paul of 'Rowand Anderson & Paul'. After distinguished war-time service, Spence then set up his own practice, Basil Spence & Partners, with Bruce Robertson, which was based in London from the early 1950s. The firm rapidly became one of the most celebrated UK practices working in a Brutalist idiom, with their most important buildings including Coventry Cathedral (1956-62), Hyde Park Cavalry Barracks, London (1970) and the British Embassy in Rome (1971).