George Gammon Adams

George Gammon Adams (21 April 1821 – 14 March 1898; sometimes spelled George Gamon Adams or George Gannon Adams ) was an English portrait sculptor and medallist, noted for his statue of General Charles Napier in Trafalgar Square.

Life

Adams was born on 21 April 1821, in Staines, Middlesex, the son of James Adams upholsterer and auctioneer.

George entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1840 on the recommendation of the medallist William Wyon and trained as a sculptor and medallist. He won a silver medal at the academy in the same year. In the following year he was given the honour of making the death mask of the Duke of Wellington from which he made a marble bust of the Duke.

Over the next two decades he produced busts of notable people and other public monuments.

Works Monuments Monument to Captain Henry Langhorne Thompson (1856) in St Paul's Cathedral Monument to Sir Duncan MacDougall (1862) in St Paul's Cathedral Monument to Rev Gerald Wellesley (1882) at Stratfield Saye Monument to Samuel Birch (Egyptologist) (1886) in Highgate Cemetery

Statues Hugh Boyd M'Neile, Dean of Ripon for St George's Hall, Liverpool

Sir John Colbourne in Upper Canada College, Toronto The Good Shepherd for Saint Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster Duke of Wellington for Norwich

Busts Duke of Wellington, purchased by Queen Victoria, 1853 Prince George, Duke of Cambridge The Prince Consort Lord Brougham Lord Palmerston Sir Henry Havelock Sir Charles Napier Lord Seaton Sir Harry Smith

Medals Melpomene, 1841 Jurors' Medal for The Great Exhibition of 1851, prize of £100 Medal presented to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at the opening of The Crystal Palace in Sydenham Medal for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria Funeral medal of the Duke of Wellington The Opening of Blackfriars Bridge and Holborn Valley Viaduct Visit of King George I of the Hellenes to the City of London Albert Victor Receives Freedom Marriage of the Duke and Duchess of York

Other sculpture "The Contest between the Minstrel and the Nightingale", sculpture submitted for a competition for the new Palace of Westminster, 1845 "The Murder of the Innocents", winner of RA Gold Medal, 1847 "The Combat of Centaurs and Lapithae" and "Figure with a Torch", shown at the Great Exhibition