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John, Sir William Goscombe (1860-1952) Sculptor
From Your Archives
| John, Sir William Goscombe (1860-1952) Sculptor |
There are two files WORK 20/105 and WORK 20/213 in The National Archives which concern the statue of Viscount Wolseley on Horse Guards’ Parade, the work of the sculptor Sir William Goscombe John.
WORK 20/105 covers the period November 1913 to August 1920 and gives us background information on the choosing of the site for the memorial and its design. The correspondence involves, amongst others, H.M.Office of Works, the War Office, the Committee of the Memorial to Lord Wolseley, Lady Wolseley, the Prime Minister’s Office, and Goscombe John (many hand written letters written from his 24 Greville Road, St.John’s Wood address).
We learn:-
1. For a long time the statue was going to be sited in Trafalgar Square. Firstly there was mention of it taking the site now occupied by the Napier Monument and then of it replacing the statue of George IV. However in due course it was decided that this site was unsuitable and the site in Horse Guards Parade chosen.
2. At first there was mention of the sculptor being chosen in either an open or limited competition, but in April 1914 the First Commissioner of Works wrote to the Committee of the Memorial to Lord Wolseley saying that he had recently visited Cardiff and had seen and been impressed by the equestrian statue of Lord Tredegar there, executed by Goscombe John. The First Commissioner wrote “ This statue is certainly one of the most striking modern equestrian statues I have ever seen, and I think Goscombe John is well worthy of your consideration as a sculptor for the Wolseley Memorial”. In May 1914 H.M.Office of Works were writing to Lord Grenfell, the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Memorial Fund to say that Sir John Goscombe John had been interviewed, told of the proposed site and had said that he would execute the statue at “whatever sum we were able to afford”. The First Commissioner had also written to Cardiff to find out how much they had paid for the Lord Tredegar statue ( £ 2,000 )
3. Lady Wolseley was involved in the choice of uniform which Wolseley would wear in the statue. The First Commissioner had suggested less formal wear ( “the kind of garb he wore, say, during the Egyptian Campaign, or some active service kit.”) but Lady Wolseley preferred that her husband be shown in full Field Marshal’s attire.
4. At one point Lady Wolseley wrote that many of Lord Wolseley’s friends wished that Adrian Jones be given the commission. She talked in admiring terms of Jones’ statue of the Duke of Cambridge (in Whitehall). She had seen a photograph of the Lord Tredegar statue but was not impressed with the representation of the horse. Later however we learn that Lady Wolseley had seen Goscombe John’s model for the statue and had been happy with it.
5. It seems that the 1914-1918 war had caused the completion of the memorial to be delayed but on 9th April 1918 we read in the file of a press notice stating that a model of the statue “destined after the war to be erected in Trafalgar Square was to be exhibited at the Royal Academy."
6. In January 1919, when a much more formal approach seemed to be evolving on the choosing of sites for statues, a committee was formed to adjudicate on this and other sitings, and after much thought and discussion it was decided that the site in Trafalgar Square was not suitable and the site on Horse Guards Parade was put forward and accepted.A contract was now drawn up with Holloway Bros to erect a Portland stone pedestal. In 1920 the statue of Wolseley was unveiled standing at the west front of the Horse Guards facing the parade ground. The Roberts memorial was to be placed on the other side. It was decided that the inscription on the plinth would just read “Wolseley” and “Roberts” on the other.
From WORK 20/213 we learn that during the 1939-1945 war and after suffering bomb damage the statue was moved to Berkhampstead Castle in 1941 to avoid the risk of further damage and stayed there until 1949. A photograph of the Wolseley statue is shown below:-
Born in 1860, in Canton, near Cardiff, the son of a wood carver. Goscombe John worked alongside his father on carving and marquetry as part of the rebuilding of Cardiff Castle by William Burges. It was Burges who was said to have encouraged Goscombe John to study at the Cardiff School of Art. From 1881 to 1884 he studied clay-modeling under Jules Dalou at the Lambeth City and Guilds School of Art and then continued his studies at the Royal Academy Schools. He won a Royal Academy gold medal and traveling scholarship for “Parting”, a bronze group for Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and eventually took a studio in Paris where he worked from 1890 to 1891. At the Royal Academy Schools he had had the opportunity of working and studying under the likes of Frederic Leighton, Sir Thomas Brock and Sir Alfred Gilbert and in Paris was said to show the influence of Rodin who he had had the opportunity to watch at work.
Goscombe John produced many fine works.
A. The Sullivan Memorial in Victoria Embankment Gardens, of which photographs are shown below, shows a mourning girl, an allegorical representation of music, seemingly throwing herself in grief against the stele on the top of which is a bust of Sullivan.
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B. Another of Goscombe John’s works is the War Memorial at Port Sunlight dedicated to the men of Lever Bros who lost their lives in the 1914-1918 war. This features magnificent narrative groups in bronze depicting both war service and the defense of the homeland. Several photographs of the bronze figures which form part of this memorial are shown below. It is a brilliant and evocative composition.
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C. “The Response” at Barras Bridge, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, commemorating the Northumberland Fusiliers ,is another work featuring narrative groups,this with a remarkable crowd scene . It is said to depict the scene in April 1915 when the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers marched from their camp in Gosforth Park, through Haymarket, and on to Central Station before embarking to fight on the Western Front.Soldiers march off to war watched by an angel while women and children bid them farewell. The memorial bears the inscription "Non Sibi Sed Patriae" (Not for Self but for Country). The memorial was commissioned by Sir George and Lady Renwick to commemorate three events: the raising of the Commercial Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers; the return of the five Renwick sons from the war; and Sir George Renwick's attainment of 50 years of commercial life on Newcastle Quayside. On St.George's Day the regiment wear a rose in their head-dress. The regimental badge shows St. George slaying the dragon. Some photographs are shown below firstly of the front and back of the memorial and then several studies of the remarkable crowd scenes. Finally there is a photograph of the bas relief of a soldier which forms part of the memorial.
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[edit] OTHER WORKS BY GOSCOMBE JOHN
1. “John the Baptist” awarded the gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900.
2. His first public work, executed in 1916, a group of ten figures in marble “St David blessing the People” for Cardiff City Hall.
3. Statue of the Seventh Duke of Devonshire at Eastbourne-awarded a gold medal in the Paris Salon of 1901.
4. Equestrian Statues of Edward VII for Cape Town in 1904, Lord Tredegar for Cardiff in 1909 (see below), Lord Minto for Calcutta in 1913 and Sir Stanley Maude for Baghdad in 1921.
5. In 1908 the Salisbury tomb in Westminster Abbey (File WORK 20/105 establishes that Goscombe John was paid 2,000 guineas for this work). File WORK 6/400/6 at The National Archives also gives some background information on this work and includes many hand written notes from Goscombe John himself. The correspondence in the file covers the period December,1905 to October,1910.
6. A monument to Salisbury in St.Etheldreda’s Church, Hatfield.
7. The King’s regiment memorial in the centre of Liverpool completed in 1905. This featured the “Drummer Boy” which became one of his best-known works.See also below.
8. “Engine-Room Heroes Memorial” at the Pier Head in Liverpool.
9. Bust of Robert Owen presented in 1929 to the International Labour Office in Geneva.
10. “Boy at Play” in the Tate Gallery.
11. The 1914-1918 War Memorial at Llandaff in Wales. See below.
12. War memorial at Wrexham.
In the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight there are two of Goscombe John’s works amongst the exhibits. The photograph below left shows the bust of Goscome John’s wife and that on the right his daughter.
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Goscombe John was also the sculptor of the statue of Lloyd-George which stands outside of Caernarvon Castle. File WORK 20/140 held at the National Archives gives some background information on the statue and covers the period 1919 to 1921.
Goscombe John also designed the regalia used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911 and the commemorative medal for that investiture, the jubilee medal of George V, and the great seal of Edward VIII.
He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1899, and made an academician in 1909.
He died in 1952 at his home in St.John’s Wood.
It is said that Goscombe John admired the work of William Reid Dick, Charles Sargeant Jagger and Eric Gill most among his contemporaries and, indeed, considered Jagger a genius. He considered the finest piece of British statuary to be Sir Alfred Gilbert's bronze “Icarus” which he purchased himself and presented to the National Museum of Wales.
As befits a Cardiff born sculptor, there are many examples of Goscombe John's works in the Cardiff area.
In Llandaff Cathedral are three works by Goscombe John. The first is a memorial plaque to Bishop Pritchard Hughes, the second is a plaque to the memory of James Rice Buckley, and the third the tomb of Dean Vaughan. Photographs taken in May 2008 of the Buckley plaque and the Dean Vaughan tomb are shown below.
James Rice Buckley had been the Vicar of Llandaff from 1878 to 1913, and Archdeacon of Llandaff from 1913. a bronze statue of him by Goscombe John stands by Llandaff Green. See photograph below. This statue was unveiled on 30th October 1926. On the plinth is incised:-
“A MAN HE WAS/TO ALL/THE COUNTRY DEAR/JAMES RICE BUCKLEY/1878 VICAR OF LLANDAFF 1924/ARCHDEACON 0F LLANDAFF/1913-1924”
On Llandaff Green is a splendid War Memorial by Goscombe John. Some photographs are shown in the gallery below including the two strong figures which stand to the left and right of the central figure.
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In the National Museum of Wales there are several works by Goscombe John including:-
A. A version of the “Drummer Boy” which formed part of Goscombe John’s King’s Liverpool Regiment memorial in Liverpool mentioned above. A photograph is shown below taken in May 2008.
B. A fine bronze bust of Lloyd George. A photograph taken in May 2008 is shown below. This was a study for a statue of Lloyd George to be erected in Caernarfon and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1921. We note from the National Museum’s own notes near to the bust that Goscombe John was on friendly terms with Lloyd George and that the bust was given to the museum by the sculptor in 1938.
C. A bust purchased in 1988 of John Cory. A photograph taken in May 2008 is
shown below.
D. A bust of Lord Pontypridd. A photograph is shown below.
A bronze statue of John Cory by Goscombe John stands in Gorsedd Gardens in front of the City Hall, Cardiff and a photograph is shown of this statue . The bronze statue on a portland stone pedestal was unveiled in June 1906 and commissioned in recognition of John Cory’s philanthropic and charitable works. Beneath the statue is incised:-
“JOHN CORY/COAL OWNER/PHILANTHROPIST/THIS STATUE IS ERECTED BY HIS/FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS/AS A TOKEN OF THEIR APPRECIATION/OF HIS WORLD WIDE SYMPATHIES/1906”
Also in Gorsedd Gardens, Cardiff , there is also a splendid statue of Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart which was unveiled on 9th August 1919. A photograph is shown below and also a photograph of the inscription. Crichton-Stuart was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915.
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Also in Gorsedd Gardens is a statue of Godfrey, First Viscount Tredegar, who took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade. Photographs of the statue and splendid bas-reliefs are shown in the gallery below. This equestrian statue was unveiled on 25th October 1909.
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Another Goscombe John statue stands in front of the Law Courts in Cardiff. It is that of Judge Gwilym Williams an eminent Cardiff judge. This was unveiled on 15th April 1910. A photograph is shown below.
Another of Goscombe John's works worth mentioning are the reliefs "Egypt and Japan" and "India and China" on Electra House, Moorgate, London.
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