Early life Tindale was born at 9 Hill View, Bell's Hill,
Chipping Barnet,
Hertfordshire on 11 March 1926. She was the only child of the
Inland Revenue tax officer Thomas John Tindale and his wife Princess May,
née Uttin. At the registration of her birth, Tindale's name was not recorded but her naming certificate had her name as Sheila Randall Patricia. She was taught at Blatchington Court School in
Seaford, East Sussex, and then the
Architectural Association School of Architecture from 1943 to 1948.
Career In 1949 Tindale joined the
Civil Service in the
Ministry of Education. She worked in the ministry's architects and building branch for vetting schools being built in Wales and was the first territorial appointment of her former Hertfordshire boss Stirrat Johnson-Marshall. She was instrumental in bringing about the introduction of an alternative smaller-scale prefabricated building systems after her group advised against the government putting families into tower blocks. Tindale was heavily involved in the 5M programme adopting the building system
Consortium of Local Authorities Special Programme (CLASP) for residential housing rather than the college and school buildings in Nottinghamshire. with 250,000 homes built by this method by 1975. a position created by
Michael Heseltine after lobbying from the RIBA. During her time in the post, Tindale steadied the decline in public housing construction and affected government policy on design after a controversial competition for the
National Gallery. This was the final time an architect in the civil service was influential in architectural education and design and built a team of architect advisers. In 1986 she retired from the civil service, and her position was abolished as government interest in building and the influence of public service architects declined. In retirement Tindale continued to promote architecture through the RIBA committees, and chaired the Housing Design Awards from 1984 to 1993. She served on the Building Regulations Advisory Committee and the board of the
Anchor Housing Association. Tindale was active in the
Reform Club and the Weavers Guild. ==Personal life==