PHILBRICK, Bertie Raymond (1874-1916) is often mistakenly credited with designs for several provincial buildings in Saskatchewan between April 1913 and 1916 when he held the post of Director (but not as Chief Architect) of the provincial Public Works Dept., succeeding Walter J. Coltman who had resigned by letter from England in early 1913. Philbrick was born on 23 February 1874 and was a surveyor who began his career in Capetown, South Africa and with his father operated a large contracting firm there overseeing the construction of several public works projects. He appears to have arrived in Canada in 1910 and settled in Saskatchewan. During his tenure in Regina he supervised the work of several draftsmen in the Sask. Dept. of Public Works including Maurice W. Sharon who had rejoined the provincial government in early 1914 after a brief period of private practise. It is likely that designs for the Court House in Humboldt, Sask. (1914) and other buildings are from the hand of Sharon and not from Philbrick.
Philbrick went overseas with Canadian Expeditionary Forces and was killed in action in Belgium on 9 September 1916. He was later buried at the Canadian War Graves site at Ridge Wood Military Cemetery in Belgium. Sharon succeeded him as Chief Architect of the department in January 1917 (biog. in Canadian Engineer, xxiv, 3 April 1913, 545-6; inf. Ross Herrington, Regina)