ABSTRACT
It has been held that Holford’s service in the Ministries of Works and Town and Country Planning constituted the most significant episode of his entire career, yet even by 1945 he had a number of other and very substantial strings to his bow. He was Lever Professor, a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission (RFAC), and by the latter part of that year he was also Chairman of the Ministry’s Advisory Committee on Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. From 1946 he was honorary Technical Adviser to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning. He was well-known in civil service and professional circles and many possible careers of great responsibility and influence were open to him. It might be said that his choice from among these opportunities was to take all of them. Yet it is much more likely that he made no decision at all: he merely responded positively to the many demands that were made upon him, and his success generated yet further demands. So the process continued, until the ‘shape’ of his career was buried beneath drifts of paper.
