Joseph Hermon Cawthra

Joseph Hermon Cawthra (1886–1971), was an English monumental sculptor. During his lifetime he was considered among the leading classical sculptors working in Britain and received several commissions for public monuments, war memorials and architectural sculptures.

Biography

Joseph Hermon Cawthra was born in Baildon in Yorkshire, the son of Silas and Ellen Cawthra. From the age of 14 he spent seven years as an apprentice to a monumental stonemason while, from 1904, taking evening classes at the Salts Art School in Shipley until 1907. He then spent two years, from 1907 to 1909, at the Leeds School of Art before moving to London where he studied at the Royal College of Art until 1911 and then the Royal Academy Schools until 1916.

Cawthra was deemed unfit for active service in World War I and spent part of the conflict carving wooden aircraft propellers for the Royal Flying Corps. A model of the Bootle infantry and airman sculptures were shown at the Royal Academy in 1922. The reliefs Cawthra created for the Bury war memorial were also shown at the Royal Academy and are rare in showing the contribution of women to the war effort.

1930s

Other works In the 1930s for a major renovation of the Bentalls Store in Kingston upon Thames, Cawthra carved several embellishments and a coat of arms. Since then the store has seen further major structural changes and all that now remains of Cawthra's work is the coat of arms. In 1937, Selfridges on Oxford Street in London mounted what it called a "sculpted pageant of English History and symbolic Empire groups". Various large bas-reliefs were erected in front of the store. The sculptors given commissions were chosen by William Reid Dick. Cawthra was chosen to sculpt the relief which represented India. The Henry Moore Institute Archive Leeds Cawthra papers reference 1995.9 include cuttings from "The London Illustrated News" covering these bas-reliefs. A 1948 war memorial, now lost, in the form of a statuette of Saint George, for the Junior Carlton Club in London. Cawthra sculpted the figure of Truth on the top of the dome of the Town Hall building in Braintree, Essex. Cawthra's composition Meditation was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1957 and then stood in Gwendwr Garden, Fulham, London but was subsequently stolen. For the Church of St Michael and All Angels in Kingston upon Hull, Cawthra sculpted a Madonna and child. A bust of George V for Mombassa.