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

Detail of Gwersyllt War Memorial

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 stone mason while, from 1904, taking evening classes at the Salts Art School in Shipley until 1907.^[1] 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.^[2][3][4]

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.^[1] After the war, he briefly worked for the sculptor Paul Raphael Montford before establishing his own studio in London.^[1] Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Cawthra's studio produced war memorials, architectural sculptures and exhibition pieces. His reputation was established by the sculptures he created for the Bootle War Memorial which, unusually for a World War I memorial featured a sculpture of an airman.^[5] A model of the Bootle infantry and airman sculptures were shown at the Royal Academy in 1922.^[5][6] 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.^[6][5] These works led to further war memorial commissions for Cawthra, often featuring a single monumental sculpture on an obelisk.

Cawthra was elected to the Royal British Society of Sculptors (RBS) in 1937.^[3][4] He closed his London studio in 1939 at the start of World War II and took a teaching job at the Brighton College of Art.^[1] In 1941 Cawthra took the post of head of sculpture at the Hull College of Art, a position he retained until 1945 when he reopened his London studio.^[1] Shortly afterwards Cawthra began to teach part-time at the Bournemouth Municipal College and continued to do so until his retirement at the age of 70.^[1]

In the latter part of his life, Cawthra lived at Sheen, near Richmond in south-west London but died during a visit to Cottingley in Yorkshire.^[1]

Selected public works

1920s

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Type	Material	Dimensions	Designation	Wikidata	Notes
More images		Former Odeon Cinema, Guildford, Surrey		Four bas-relief panels	Stone				[7]
More images	War memorial	Gardens of the Church of St John-at-Hackney, Hackney, London	1921	Obelisk-mounted statue	Bronze and Portland stone	4.6m tall	Grade II	Q26671054	[8][9]
More images	War memorial	Maule Street, Monifieth, Angus	1921	Obelisk-mounted statue	Bronze and stone		Category B	Q17779629	Architect, Charles Soutar[10][11]
More images	Bootle War Memorial	King's Gardens, Bootle, Merseyside	1922	Four statues on a circular plinth with panels	Bronze and sandstone		Grade II*	Q15978913	[5][12]
More images	War memorial	Gwersyllt, Wrexham	1923	Obelisk-mounted statue	Bronze and stone		Grade II	Q29494213	[13][14]
	Britannia	County Fire Office Building, 218–222 Regent Street, London	1924	Sculpture	Stone		Grade II		Architect, Ernest Newton[15]
More images	War memorial	Bury, Greater Manchester	1924	Cross on base with flanking wall and panels	Stone and bronze		Grade II*	Q66478665	Panels by Cawthra, cross design by Sir Reginald Blomfield[5][16]

1930s

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Type	Material	Dimensions	Designation	Wikidata	Notes
	Putto with Goat and Putto with Turkey	Leeds Civic Hall	c. 1933	Two sculpture groups	Stone		Grade II*		[17][18]
More images	Memorial to Reginald Brabazon, 12th Earl of Meath	Lancaster Gate, London	1934	Sculpture and relief on pillar	Portland stone		Grade II	Q26516071	[19][nb 1]
More images	Benevolence and Prudence	37–39 Corn Street, Bristol	1935	Statue / relief carving	Portland stone		Grade II		[20][21]
More images	Peace and Plenty	37–39 Corn Street, Bristol	1935	Statue / relief carving	Portland stone		Grade II		[20][21]
	Robert Burns	Burns' Mausoleum, Dumfries	1936	Relief	Stone		Category A		Restoration & replacement of original panels[4][22]
		Sadler's Wells Theatre, London	1938	Two reliefs					One relief was originally positioned over the theatre entrance, the other over the stage.[23]
	Commerce and Cotton	Town Hall Extension, St Peter's Square, Manchester	1938	Two relief sculptures	Stone		Grade II*		[6]
	Figures of a philosopher and a counsellor	Town Hall Extension, St Peter's Square, Manchester	1938	Two relief sculptures	Stone		Grade II*		[6]

Later works

Image	Title / subject	Location and coordinates	Date	Type	Material	Dimensions	Designation	Wikidata	Notes
	Reginald Brabazon, 12th Earl of Meath	St Paul's Cathedral, London	1953	Tablet	Stone				[24]
	Tomáš Baťa	Former Bata shoe factory, Princess Margaret Road, East Tilbury, Essex	1955	Statue on pedestal	Bronze and stone				[25][26]
	Affection	Bishops Park, Fulham, London	1963	Statue	Portland stone				[27][28][29]

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joseph Hermon Cawthra (sculptor).

• 15 artworks by or after Joseph Hermon Cawthra at the Art UK site