Philip Morton Shand was born in 1888 and died in Lyon in 1960. Architecture critic, journalist and food writer, Shand was a co-founder of MARS, the Modern Architectural Research Group and was said to be instrumental in bringing modern architecture into Britain. He was a translator and correspondent of Walter Gropius and a friend of Le Corbusier. He wrote at least 80 articles which were published in The Concrete Way. He also set up a company Finmar with Geoffrey Boumphrey, to import Alvar Aalto's Finnish furniture designs to the UK. Having been a key proponent of the modern movement, by the 1950s Shand was disillusioned by the style of architecture he had once so favoured. Shand was married four times having 3 children and 1 step-daughter. Notably, his grandaughter is Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Another of his daughters, Elspeth, married Geoffrey Howe to become Baroness Howe of Idlicote.