Hilary Stratton

Hilary Byfield Stratton (29 June 1906 – 20 May 1985) was an English sculptor, stonemason and teacher working in the 20th Century. He is best known for his stone carvings and memorials but experimented in other media that included: perspex, copper and resin. Stratton was an adherent of Eric Gill, with whom he was apprenticed at the age of thirteen, and the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement was evident in much of Stratton's work.

Early life Stratton was born in Amberley in West Sussex, the son of Frederick Stratton (1870-1960), a commercial painter and watercolorist and Lucy Stratton. Amberley and the neighbouring hamlet of North Stoke were the centre of an artistic community that included Edward Stott who settled in Amberley in the late 1880s, Arthur Rackham and John Ireland. His father who in the 1920s had a studio in Chelsea was a major influence on the young Stratton, encouraging him to practice with different materials and when Stratton Jr was just twelve he carved a Portland stone figure of an ancient Egyptian supporting a bowl under his knees. On completion of his apprenticeship Stratton studied sculpture at St. Martin's School of Art leaving at seventeen years to attend the Royal College of Art, where he studied under Gilbert Ledward and Henry Moore.

In July 1937 Stratton married Eileen Letitia Despard (1910–1997) known as Billie, the niece of the suffragette and Sinn Féin campaigner Charlotte Despard. They met whilst Despard was posing as an artist's model.

Career as a sculptor and teacher In 1931 he began establishing himself as a teacher and to the outbreak of the Second World War he taught stone carving and lettering at Westminster School of Art. Two prime examples of his larger works are the Memorial to the Home of Aviation at Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey in Kent and the Invicta Monument now located in the church yard of Saint Peter and Saint Paul's Church in Swanscombe, Kent, but previously next to the main A2 road to Dover.

Stratton died at his home in Barns Green on 20 May 1985. He is buried at the local Parish Church of St. Nicolas in Itchingfield, West Sussex.

Selected works 1920: South Harting War Memorial situated at St Mary and St Gabriel Parish Church: the bas relief of St Patrick at the base of the monument is by Stratton 1955: Isle of Sheppey, Memorial to the Home of Aviation, design by Sidney Loweth, sculpted by Stratton 1957: City of Westminster, St Clement Danes church, floor memorial to Royal Air Force 1958: Swanscombe, Invicta Monument erected to the Men of Kent at St.Peter & St Paul 1960: Stanmore, Middlesex, St William of York R C Church, 3.5 m tall sculpture of the Crucifixion 1963: Henfield, Sussex, St Peter's COE Primary School, sculpture of St Peter 1969: Wivelsfield, East Sussex, memorial to Jessie Edey (1885–1969), a nanny to the children of the local Herbison family

Illustrations of works