From Your Archives

The National Register of Archives holds further information about manuscripts and historical records on Thornycroft, Sir William Hamo (1850-1925) Knight Sculptor

Files WORK 20/100 and WORK 20/115 held at the National Archives cover the statue of Oliver Cromwell which stand outside the Houses of Parliament and was the work of the sculptor Hamo Thornycroft.

Two recent photographs are shown below of the Oliver Cromwell work. The first shows Cromwell himself and the second the lion on the lower part of the statue.

Oliver Cromwell

Lion beneath Cromwell statue

File WORK 20/100 opens in March 1894 and contains several hand written letters from John Bell.

Bell had referred Office of Works to the cast of his model of Oliver Cromwell which he had presented to the South Kensington Museum in London. Another cast was at the Crystal Palace and the model had been exhibited at the 1862 Exhibition.

Bell puts his model forward for the projected statue of Cromwell to be erected by the Houses of Parliament but sadly in March 1895 Bell died. His assistant of 40 years, Charles Stoath then put himself forward to complete the work, saying that he had Bell’s model ,. He talks of executing the statue in Sicilian marble for a fee of £ 700.

However in July of 1895 we learn that Hamo Thornycroft had been given the commission at a cost of £3000 and in May of 1898 Thornycroft had finished the model and advised that it was at the foundry being cast in bronze. Funds were hen offered as a gift by an “anonymous donor” to cover the purchase of a Cromwell statue from Thornycroft.The donor’s condition was that the funds only be used for the Thornycroft work.

In November 1899 the pedestal had been erected and we see in the file a petition from several members of parliament protesting against the erection of the statue until the House of Commons had had the opportunity of giving a judgement on the matter. Several debates followed in the House of Lords.

It seems the matter was resolved and the statue erected on the pedestal and letters in the file post November 1899 concern “care and maintenance” and requests to lay wreaths by the statue all of which were turned down.

File WORK 20/115 covers the period November 1937 to August 1947. There is some discussion as to whether Lord Rosebery was the donor but there does not appear to have been any direct evidence of this.

Hamo Thornycroft, was born on 9 March 1850, the son of Thomas Thornycroft the sculptor, and his wife, Mary Thornycroft also a sculptor. Hamo Thornycroft was determined to become a sculptor himself although his father opposed this at first and eventually started his training in the family studio. In 1869 he enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools, London. In 1871 he travelled to Paris and Rome.In 1875 he won a Royal Academy gold medal for “A Warrior Bearing a Wounded Youth from the Field of Battle” which can be seen in Leighton House, London.

[edit] OTHER WORKS BY HAMO THORNYCROFT

1. “Lot’s Wife” also in Leighton House, London.

2. “The Mower” in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

3. “The Sower” in Kew Gardens, London. File WORK 20/183 held at the National Archives covers this statue which was presented to Kew by the Royal Academy of Arts through the Leighton Fund. We learn that the Portland stone pedestal was designed by Sir Edward Lutyens and Alfred Drury. The statue was presented as a gift to Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries to be placed in a public place and was erected at Kew on 23rd January 1929.In October 1928 it had been placed in the new hall of the Royal Horticultural Society prior to erection in Kew. On 22nd November 1927 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries wrote to Kew at the instigation of First Commissioner of Works offering the statue. The file contains an ordnance Survey Office Map of Kew dated 1924.There is a letter in the file on Royal Botanic Gardens headed notepaper dated 6th December 1927 signed by Major T.F. Chipp, Assistant Director, accepting the statue and in May 1928, a Mr.Lamb of the Royal Academy of Arts toured Kew with the then Director, Dr.A.W.Hill, to select a site. By 2nd July 1928, Lutyens, Drury and Lamb lunched at Kew with Dr.Hill , examined the proposed positioning of the statue and pedestal and undertook to prepare the pedestal.The correspondence ends on 1st February 1929 when it is confirmed that the statue had been placed in its allotted position.

4. “Golf” in the Reading Museum and Art Gallery, Reading, Berkshire.

5. “Justice” in the Reading Museum and Art Gallery, Reading, Berkshire.

6. Statuette of Edward I in Southampton Art Gallery, Hampshire.

7. Tomb of Bishop Creighton in St.Paul’s Cathedral.

Statue of General Gordon

8. Memorial to Lord Armstrong, Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

9. Monument to General Gordon on Victoria Embankment, London. File WORK 20/50 held at the National Archives covers the statue of General Gordon when it stood in Trafalgar Square. The file opens in July 1885 and closes in 1907. There are hand-written letters in the file from Hamo Thornycroft. Thorncroft’s fee was £3000. By October 1888 the statue had been erected and Thornycroft was paid the balance of funds due to him. After 1888 letters in the file concern “care and maintenance” issues.

A recent photograph of the General Gordon statue is shown to the right.

Bas-relief on pedestal beneath statue of General Gordon

File WORK 20/280 covers the move to the Embankment Gardens in 1953. WORK 20/215 covered the build up to this move between 1939 and 1948. We read that the statue was removed from Trafalgar Square and put into storage to enable a Lancaster bomber to be exhibited in the space usually taken by it, the exhibition being arranged by the National Savings Committee during the London “Wings for Victory” week in 1943. The statue was then moved to Mentmore in Buckinghamshire for the duration of the war for safe keeping. The statue was returned to Trafalgar Square after the war and then discussions started as to whether to move it again in view of the moves to accommodate memorials to Jellicoe and Beatty in the Square. Embankment Gardens was eventually chosen. Another photograph is shown to the right, this of the bas-relief on the pedestal. 10. Monument to Charles Edward Henry Tempest-Hicks in St.Mary Church, Hadley Barret, London

11. Monument to Gladstone, George Square, Glasgow, Scotland.

12. Monument to Paul Springman in the churchyard Crondall, Hampshire.

13. Monument to Rev.Arthur Henry Stanton in the Church of St.Albans, Holt, London.

14. Monument to Sir John Goss in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

15. Statue of Dean Colet at St Paul’s Playing Fields, London.

16. “The Warrior” in Leighton House, London.

17. Frieze sculptures for the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Great Swann Alley, City of London.

18. Alfred the Great in Winchester.

19. John Colet for St Paul's School, Hammersmith.

20. His great Gladstone composition is in the Aldwych, London. The surrounding sculptures, Courage, Brotherhood, Aspiration, and Education, were all intended to cover Gladstone's strengths and priorities.A recent photograph of part of this composition is shown below and then in gallery form, some further studies of the Gladstone statuary group which must be one of the most memorable such groups in London.

Part of Gladstone statue by Thornycroft

Part of Gladstone Memorial	Part of Gladstone Memorial	Part of Gladstone Memorial	Part of Gladstone Memorial
Part of Gladstone Memorial	Part of Gladstone Memorial	Part of Gladstone Memorial

22. The memorial commemorating the first Marquess Curzon as viceroy of India now at Old Flagstaff House, Barrackpore.

Thornycroft was elected to full membership of the Royal Academy in 1888 and was knighted in 1917. In 1924 he was the first recipient of the Royal Society of British Sculptors' gold medal. He died on the 18th December 1925.

Further information on Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamo_Thornycroft