English aristocrat and architect (Henry) John Seely, the 2nd Baron Mottistone, was BOTD in 1899. Born in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, he was the second son of the 1st Baron Mottistone, a British Army general and politician. After attending Harrow School, he went to Cambridge University to study architecture, where he met fellow student Paul Edward Paget. They became lovers, and were soon inseparable, referring to each other as “the partner”. “It was just the marriage of two minds,” Paget later said, “we became virtually one person”. Seely served in the military during World War One, in which his elder brother Frank was killed. After the war, he and Paget established an architectural firm together, with Seely as lead designer and Paget securing business and cultivating client relationships. Their first domestic job was the restoration of Mottistone Manor on the Isle of Wight for Seely’s father. In 1930, they bought 41-42 Cloth Fair in Smithfield, thought to be the oldest house in London, and undertook an ambitious renovation project: installing separate baths in the bathroom so they would soak together, blocking up windows in the house opposite that overlooked their kitchen, and commissioning the artist Brian Thomas to paint a mural of a sailor returning home to his family (in Paget’s words “a delightful thing to look at”). Their business became so successful that they were later able to buy most of the buildings in their street. Their most important commission was the refurbishment of Eltham Palace, a medieval stately house in Greenwich which had been the childhood home of King Henry VIII. Its tenants Stephen and Virginia Courtauld commissioned Seely and Paget to design a modern home that incorporated the medieval palace remains. Seely’s Art Deco-inspired designs, while initially controversial, were widely acclaimed, and are now considered a masterpiece of British Art Deco architecture. During World War Two, he served in the Auxiliary Air Force and at the Ministry of Works. After his father’s death in 1947, he succeeded to the baroncy, though showed little interest in politics, continuing his architectural practice. After the war, he and Paget restored a number of bomb-damaged London buildings, including Westminster Abbey, Lambeth Palace, Eton College and the London Charterhouse, and also designed the new church of St Andrew and St George in Stevenage. Seely was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a member of the Art Workers Guild. His last and most prestigious appointment was as the Surveyor to the Fabric of St Paul’s Cathedral. He planned extensive renovations to the church interior, designing the Chapel of the Order of the British Empire (an honour he was awarded in 1961). He died suddenly in 1963 and was buried in St Catherine’s Chapel garden at Westminster Abbey. The bereft Paget oversaw the completion of the St Paul’s work but was unable to continue the practice without his partner, eventually retiring, marrying a woman and moving to Norfolk.