sir thomas brock·1847 - 1922

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use the down arrow to view option ========================= link to further material not in books ========================= ---------- section b ---------- bacon, john [BWM] baily, edward hodges [BWM] baker, sir herbert [Rem] behnes, william [BWM] bell, john [BWM] belsky, franta [BWM] binyon, laurence [Rem] blomfield, sir reginald [Rem] blunden, edmund [Rem] boehm, sir edgar [BWM] brock, sir thomas [BWM] butler, james [BWM] burdett-coutts, william [Rem] burnet, sir john james [Rem] ========================= ---------- section c ---------- chantrey, sir francis [BWM] churchill, sir winston [Rem] cockerell, professor charles [BWM] comper, sir ninian [BWM] ========================= ---------- section d ---------- derwent wood, professor francis [Rem] dick, sir william reid [BWM] drury, alfred [BWM] ========================= ---------- section e ---------- epstein, sir jacob [BWM] ========================= ---------- section f ---------- flaxman, professor john [BWM] frampton, sir george [BWM] ========================= ---------- section g ---------- gill, eric [BWM] gleichen, count victor [BWM] goscombe john, sir william [BWM] gotto, captain basil [BWM] ========================= ---------- section h ---------- haig, field marshall earl douglas [Rem] hepworth, philip [Rem] holden, charles [Rem] hutton, john [Rem] ========================= ---------- section j ---------- jackson, philip [BWM] jagger, charles sargeant [Rem] jones, captain adrian [BWM] ========================= ---------- section k ---------- kennington, eric [BWM] kenyon, colonel sir frederic [Rem] kipling, joseph rudyard [Rem] ========================= ---------- section l ---------- lafontaine, colonel cart de [Rem] lantéri, professor édouard [BWM] ledward, professor gilbert [BWM] lewis, sir robert [Rem] lloyd george, earl dwyfor - om [Rem] lorimer, sir robert [Rem] lutyens, sir edwin - om [Rem] ========================= ---------- section m ---------- mackenall, sir bertram [BWM] mallock, vivien [BWM] marochetti, baron carlo [BWM] marsh, sir edward howard [Rem] maufe, sir edward [Rem] mcmillan, william [BWM] melchett, lord [Rem] millington, major tasman [Rem] mills, john w [BWM] mond, sir alfred [Rem] ========================= ---------- section n ---------- nash, john [BWM] nightingale, florence - om [Rem] ========================= ---------- section 0 ---------- orpen, sir william [Rem] owen, wilfred [Rem] ========================= ---------- section p ---------- pegram, henry alfred [BWM] poole, henry [Rem] ========================= ---------- section r ---------- reid dick, sir william [BWM] roberts-jones, ivor [BWM] rosenburg, isaac [Rem] ========================= ---------- section s ---------- sassoon, siegfried [Rem] shepheard, sir peter [Rem] singer sargent, john [Rem] soissons, louis de [Rem] spencer, sir stanley [BWM] ========================= ---------- section t ---------- thornycroft, sir (william) hamo [BWM] toft, albert [BWM] turner, alfred [BWM] tweed, john [BWM] ========================= ---------- section w ---------- wade, george [BWM] ware, major general sir fabian [Rem] webb, sir aston [BWM] westmacott, sir richard [BWM] wheeler, sir charles [BWM] winter, faith [BWM] wood, francis derwent [BWM] worthington, sir hubert [Rem]

Thomas Brock was born in Worcester on 1 March 1847 where he studied at the Government School of Design. From 1867 he studied at the Royal Academy Schools and was trained in his art in the studio of John Henry Foley. He first exhibited at the RA in 1868 and the following year won the RA Gold Medal. On Foley's death in 1874, Brock completed a number of his commissions, took over his studio and would go on to become one of Britain's most prolific sculptors of high quality public monuments and statuary.

“On Foley's death in 1874, Brock completed a number of his commissions, took over his studio and would go on to become one of Britain's most prolific sculptors of high quality public monuments and statuary”

Brock's output included the statue of the administrator and imperial meddler Sir Henry Bartle Frere and Robert Raikes (1889) founder of the Sunday school movement, both in Victoria Embankment Gardens, the Tomb of Lord Leighton in St Paul's Cathedral (1900) and the statue of the actor Sir Henry Irving on Charing Cross Road, London. His Captain Cook (1914) stands in The Mall and his Gainsborough may be seen on the staircase of the Royal Academy at Burlington House. His bronze portrait statue of the zoologist Sir Richard Owen (1896) may be found clutching a symbolic bone in the Natural History Museum in London and his statue Sir J E Millais (1904) stands in the grounds of Tate Gallery.

Outside London his equestrian statue of the Black Prince (1902) was produced for Leeds City Square, his Sir Rowland Hill is at Kidderminster, Bishop Philpott is in Worcester Cathedral, his William Ewart Gladstone is at St George's Hall, Liverpool and his Bishop Hervey is in Wells Cathedral. His busts Joseph Lister, Michael Faraday and Frederick Leighton can all be found in the Primary Collection of the National Portrait Gallery. His bust of Longfellow is in Westminster Abbey and his 1887 bust Sir Isaac Pitman was subsequently produced in Parian. In front of the main entrance of Belfast City Hall in Northern Ireland stands his marble statue Queen Victoria with bronze side figures symbolising Shipbuilding and Spinning. It was paid for by public subscription and unveiled by King Edward VII on 27 July 1903.

Brock's Lister Memorial stands complete with sculpted lamposts and bollards at Portland Place in London, (all cast by the Morris Art Bronze Foundry in 1922). Brock produced the bronze statue Brigadier General John Nicholson originally erected at the Kashmir Gate in Delhi. After Foley's death, Brock completed the bronze equestrian statue of Earl Canning (1874). It now stands in the Police Hospital Grounds at Barrackpore, India. He sculpted the marble statue Sir Richard Temple (1884) which now stands in the grounds of the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai.

The death of Queen Victoria in 1901 led to a mass outbreak of patriotism across the Empire and Brock must have thought it was Christmas. In 1903 he executed a copy of his statue of Queen Victoria at Hove for Queen's Park, Cawnpore (now at residing in the basement of the State Museum, Lucknow). A further copy may be found situated in a compound behind the same museum. He produced another version of Queen Victoria with a sculpted group for the Queen Victoria Memorial Committee of Agra in India in 1905 which was originally situated in MacDowall Park, Agra, (it may now be found in the Police Lines at Muttra). Other copies of this work may be found at Brisbane, Cawnpore and Carlisle. In 1905 he completed his sculpture of Queen Victoria for Bangalore which stands in Cubbon Park, Mumbai. Copies were erected at Worcester, Capetown and Belfast.

His colossal Victoria Memorial stands in front of Buckingham Palace (1906-24) and earned him a knighthood in 1911. After the death of King Edward VII in 1910, Brock was chosen by a joint Indian/British Memorial Committee to sculpt his memorial in bronze. It was cast by A B Burton's foundry at Thames Ditton and inaugurated in Cubbon Park by King George V on 8 December 1911.

Brock was elected ARA in 1883 and RA in 1891, his diploma work was the bust Frederick Leighton PRA which is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. He designed the portrait head of Queen Victoria for the Royal Mint in 1893. In 1904 he was one of the nine founder members of the Society of British Sculptors and was elected their first President in 1905. He served again in the same role during the war years 1914-19. He was appointed KCB in 1911 and died on 22 August 1922 in London.