F. X. Velarde

Francis Xavier Velarde OBE (1897 – 28 December 1960) was an English architect who practised in Liverpool, Merseyside, England.

He was later destined for a career in the merchant navy but was conscripted from there into the RNVR and served in the trenches to be gassed at Passchendaele, thus inevitably shortening his life.

[3] His design of St Gabriel, Blackburn, is considered to be "one of the milestones in the development of English church architecture towards Modern Movement style".

The practice continued after his death as F. X. Velarde Partners whose work includes St Michael and All Angels Church, Woodchurch, Birkenhead, by Richard O'Mahony (1965).

He noted Velarde's frequent pairing of blue and gold in interior design, and his preference for brick, or stone when the budget stretched to it, rather than concrete.