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Portrait of Kemp by William Bronnar, 1844

George Meikle Kemp (1795 in Hillrigs near Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland – 6 March 1844 in Edinburgh) was a Scottish joiner, draftsman, and self-taught architect.

After the death of the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, forty-five year old Kemp entered a competition for the design of the Scott Monument, under the pseudonym "John Morvo". Kemp had feared his lack of architectural qualifications and reputation would disqualify him, but his design (which was similar to an unsuccessful one he had earlier submitted for the design of Glasgow Cathedral) was popular with the competition's judges, and in 1838 Kemp was awarded the contract to construct the monument.

Kemp did not live to see the completion of his great work, however. One foggy evening, when walking home from the site, he fell into the Union Canal and drowned.

References

• Biography, from Chambers' Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen
• Biography from Gazeteer of Scotland

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.