David McLees

Alexander David McLees was born in St Andrews Fife, Scotland. He was the son of Alexander Gray McLees and Mary Adamson Syrmington. His mother was a school teacher and his father was a teacher and then deputy rector in Madras College in St Andrews. McLees studied at Madras, as did his older sister Margaret.[3] McLees played on the college rugby team from 1962 to 1964.[4] In 1964 he won the college's Coronation Medal for History.[5]

In 1969 he was awarded a Master of Arts degree by the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where his MA dissertation was on parish church architecture in Gloucestershire.[6]

In 1972, McLees won the Reginald Taylor and Lord Fletcher essay prize from the British Archaeological Association.[7] In 1978, he became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.[8]

McLees’ most notable work is perhaps the Cadw guide to Castell Coch, written in 1988.[9] The guide has had two further editions: one published in 2005,[10] and the other in 2018.[11] In his research he gained access to previously unseen archive photography showing Castell Coch had commercial vineyards, something quite rare in Britain until the 1930s.[12]

After this first collaboration with Cadw, McLees became an Inspector of Historical Buildings for the Welsh agency.[13] McLees worked for Cadw again in 2013 in a campaign to preserve traditional Welsh terraced houses. He wrote a booklet about the historical value of such houses, with guidance on their care and preservation.[14] McLees died in June 2020.

• McLees, A. D. (1969). Parish architecture in Gloucestershire (MA). London: Courtauld Institute of Art.
• McLees, D. (1972) 'Henry Yevele: disposer of the King's Works of masonry' (JBAA, 3rd ser., XXXVI (1973), 52-72).
• McLees, D. (1988). Castell Coch. Cadw.
• Jeremy Knight, John B. Hilling, Jeremy Knight, Jeremy Knight, Jack Spurgeon, Keith Kissack, John R. Kenyon & David McLees (1993) Castles, Archaeological Journal, 150:sup1, 26-43, DOI: 10.1080/00665983.1993.11785942.