Patricia Randall Tindale (11 March 1926 – 13 May 2011) was an English architect and civil servant. She joined the Civil Service at the Ministry of Education in 1949, and moved to its development group to develop prototypes for school buildings. Tindale moved to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1960 and was a founder member of its housing research & development group the following year. She was made the merged Department of the Environment's Housing Development Directorate in 1970 before leaving the research sector to lead the Building Regulations Professional Division in 1972. Between 1982 and 1986 she served as the Department of the Environment's chief architect and then retired from the Civil Service. The Royal Society of Arts established a lecture series and an award in her honour. Biography 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 to 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. In 1951, Tindale moved to the ministry's development group to develop prototypes for the new generation of spacious school buildings for quick reconfiguration site wide by sliding partitions. Such schools she designed included the Parks School, Belper with the use of the Brockhouse system, the Arnold Grammar School, Nottinghamshire, and the Finmere Primary School with David Medd and Mary Medd. Considered one of the Civil Service's rising employees, Tindale transferred to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1960, and was a founding member of its housing research & development group a year later. 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)