Born in
London, McWilliam was educated at
Charterhouse School and studied architecture at
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Upon graduation, he enrolled at the
British School in Rome, returning to Scotland in 1951 to work with architect
Stewart Kaye and with the National Building Record. Over subsequent years he became Director of the
Scottish National Buildings Record, then the Assistant Secretary of the
National Trust for Scotland. He also directed architectural history and conservation at
Edinburgh College of Art, and later
Heriot-Watt University. McWilliam was a founder of the
Dictionary of Scottish Architects Project, and was instrumental in setting up the
Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland. From 1965 to 1972 he was a Council member of the influential Edinburgh conservationist group the
Cockburn Association. In the 1970s, McWilliam was approached by
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner who, having completed the series
The Buildings of England, was keen to extend the project to cover the rest of the UK. McWilliam went on to co-write two volumes in
The Buildings of Scotland series and became the project's editor. He designed a desk and a bookcase incorporating copies of a portrait medallion of
Robert Adam by
James Tassie, for the Cabinet Room in
Bute House, the official residence of the
First Minister of Scotland. Colin McWilliam is commemorated on a plaque in
Greyfriars Kirkyard in
Edinburgh. He was the father of the author
Candia McWilliam. ==Publications==