Edgar Ranger was born at East Peckham, near Tunbridge Wells in 1888, and educated at Bradfield College, Berkshire. In training to become an architect, he made a particular study of the domestic architecture of Kent and Surrey. From 1906 to 1909, he was articled to the firm of Kerkham, Burgess and Myers, architects, Gerrard’s Cross, and he may well have worked on large houses such as ‘Diss Park’, Marsham Lane.
Edgar Ranger set up an independent practice in Gerrards Cross in 1911, with offices in Orchehill Chambers, Station Parade. Developing a large plot of land to the north of Austenwood Common, he built ‘The Downs’ and ‘Kinnerton’ (now ‘Craiglea House’), in 1911, and his own house, ‘Old Basing’ in 1912. He used the same patterns of half timbering and tile hanging he had observed in the cottages of southern England. He was to build two more houses nearby: ‘Kaduna’, in 1915, and ‘Cottered’, in 1919. Edgar Ranger served in the army during the First World War and afterwards set up a practice in Broadstairs and at Gray’s Inn Square, London. He was made an F.R.I.B.A. in 1931. His most notable Buckinghamshire house is ‘Spinfields’, Marlow, built in 1936. He died in 1971.
Anthony Ranger, Edgar Ranger’s son and Simon Ranger, Grandson both visited the Exhibition at the end of April 2006. An Exhibit showed pictures from the Ranger Family Collection including a charming book of Edgar Ranger Architectural Designs, some in colour.
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