Elsie March

Elsie March (3 October 1884– 1974) was an English sculptor and one of eight artists in her family. After the death of her brother Vernon March, she and her brothers completed the National War Memorial of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. One of the family's three sculptors, her focus earlier in her career was metalwork and painting.

Background Elsie March was the daughter of George Henry March and his wife Elizabeth Blenkin, was born in Kingston upon Hull, England. Her father was employed as a seed crusher foreman (oil miller) in Yorkshire. The family had moved by 1901 to Battersea in London, where her father worked as a builder's clerk. Elsie was the seventh of nine children, eight of whom became artists. Three of them were sculptors, Sydney, Elsie, and Vernon. The other five artist siblings were Edward, Percival, Frederick, Dudley and Walter. The ninth sibling was her sister Eva Blenkin March. Both of their parents died in 1904.

By the 1911 census, all nine siblings, still single, were living together at the 17-room family home of Goddendene in Locksbottom, Farnborough, Kent. Only two of the March siblings married, producing three children between them. Elsie's sister Eva married Charles Francis Newman in 1916. They had one child, a daughter, Heather. Her brother Frederick married a Scottish women, Agnes Annie Gow, in 1926 and they had two children.

Career

Elsie and her brothers established three large studios, including a metal foundry, in the seven acre grounds of the family home of Goddendene in Locksbottom, Farnborough after 1901.

The siblings collaborated on the sculptures of The Response, the National War Memorial of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. Vernon March, after an open, worldwide competition held in 1925, was one of seven finalists out of a total of 127 entrants. The seven finalists were asked to submit scale models of their designs. Vernon was awarded the commission in January 1926, with his theme of "The Great Response of Canada." However, the monument had not yet been completed when Vernon died of pneumonia in 1930. Below the arch, at the rear of the monument, there is a cannon. The memorial also features 22 bronze figures under the arch which represent the branches of the Canadian military that existed during the First World War. An exhibition of the March family's works was held at the Grosvenor Hotel in London in 1981.

In 1919, Elsie March exhibited two works at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. She exhibited seven times at Royal Academy summer exhibition with a total of nine works.

Other works on which the family collaborated include the Lewes War Memorial on the High Street at Lewes in East Sussex. Vernon March was the primary sculptor. The war memorial includes a central obelisk of Portland stone topped by a globe upon which a bronze winged Victory stands, her arms held aloft, a laurel wreath in one hand. Other bronze angels sit at the base of the war memorial, next to shields listing the names of deceased soldiers of World War I. The monument features a bronze figure of Victory with bronze plaques listing the names of the fallen soldiers, and those from the company who served in the wars.

Death Elsie March died at age 89 in the second quarter of 1974 in the county of Kent, England. She died in 1964.

Legacy

The Chelsfield Village Voice in April 2011 detailed the substance of a lecture that historian Paul Rason gave the previous month to the local history group. The talk was accompanied by photographs, including some of Goddendene. There were also images of the bronze figures of the National War Memorial of Canada. In addition, an exhibition featuring the work of local artists was held in 2011 in the Bromley Museum at The Priory on Church Hill in Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley. The exhibition included scale models made by the March artists. Elsie March's bust of Sir Winston Churchill is displayed at the Bromley Library.