1. Sir William Goscombe John was a prolific Welsh sculptor known for his many public memorials.
21 Facts About Goscombe John
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Goscombe John gained national attention with statues of eminent Victorians in London and Cardiff and subsequently, after both the Second Boer War and World War I, created a large number of war memorials.
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Goscombe John was born in the Canton area of Cardiff, the eldest son of Thomas Goscombe John, a wood carver from Llantrithyd and Elizabeth, from Randwick, Gloucestershire.
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Goscombe John initially studied in his home town, attending the Cardiff School of Art throughout the 1870s and took anatomy classes from a local painter.
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Goscombe John moved to London in 1881 and worked as a pupil-assistant in the studio of Thomas Nicholls, Burges' architectural carver.
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Goscombe John then studied at the South London School of Technical Art under Jules Dalou and William Silver Frith and then at the Royal Academy Schools, where he won the gold medal and a travelling scholarship in 1887.
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Goscombe John received gold medals from the Paris Salon in 1892 and, for his statue of the Duke of Devonshire, in 1901.
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Goscombe John designed the Hirlas Horn for the 1898 National Eisteddfod of Wales and a set of ceremonial tools to mark the building of the National Museum Wales in Cardiff.
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The creation of that monument had been promoted by the Welsh nationalist Thomas Edward Ellis and when he died, in 1899, Goscombe John was selected to sculpt his memorial statue which was unveiled at Bala in 1903 by David Lloyd George.
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Goscombe John received a further number of national and international commissions, including several for war memorials.
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Goscombe John created a similar representation of a regiment's heroic traditions for the 1924 Royal Welch Fusiliers memorial at Wrexham which features statues of 18th and 20th century soldiers.
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Goscombe John was commissioned by Lord Leverhulme to design a memorial at Port Sunlight to the 500 plus employees of Lever Brothers Ltd who had died in the First World War.
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Goscombe John exhibited a variety of sketches and maquettes for the memorial at the Royal Academy in 1919 and 1920 but left the final selection of figures to Leverhulme.
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Goscombe John was made a Royal Academician in 1909 and became a corresponding member of the Institut de France.
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Goscombe John first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1886 and continued to do so annually until 1948.
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Goscombe John was knighted at Caernarfon Castle in 1911 during the investiture of Edward VIII as the Prince of Wales for which he designed elements of the regalia and a medal.
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Goscombe John was influential in the development of the National Museum of Wales, having served on its governing council for over forty years and donated numerous art works to the Museum.
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From 1892 Goscombe John lived at Greville Road, Kilburn, London, and is buried in Hampstead Cemetery.
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Goscombe John exhibited medals on at least seven occasions at the Royal Academy between 1898 and 1918.
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Goscombe John designed the medal for the 1911 investiture of Edward VIII as Prince of Wales and the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935.
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Goscombe John's output was prolific and includes monuments to Lord Salisbury in Westminster Abbey and at St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield.