Person    | Male  Born 5/10/1884  Died 12/5/1973

William Charles Holland King

Categories: Sculpture

W. C. H. King was a sculptor. He was born in Cheltenham in 1884 and died in 1973. He was apprenticed to a firm of architectural sculptors at the age of 16 where he engaged in training for wood carving, stone carving and modelling. He studied at Cheltenham Art School and Birmingham Art School and then won the Landseer Scholarship for Sculpture to the Academy Schools attached to the Royal Academy of Arts. King worked closely with Gilbert Bayes and with Charles Wheeler.

After graduating he lived in London and took both public and private commissions. Particularly important ones were the sculpting of war memorials after the First World War, the most famous of which is the Dover Marine War Memorial where a plaque reads: ‘This bronze group created in 1922 represents the figure of Victory, battered by conflict yet still holding aloft the Torch of Truth. She is flanked by a soldier and a sailor, determined despite weariness. Behind her strides a bugler who has just sounded the Last Post over the fallen… it was dedicated to the memory of the railwaymen who gave their lives in the First World War.’

He went on to work for various architects, including Edwin Lutyens, one famous commission was the miniature figures for the model of the new Liverpool Cathedral started in 1933. He also produced sculptures for civic buildings and corporate buildings such as St Pancras Town Hall (now Camden Town Hall), on Euston Road, and Shell Mex House (overlooking Savoy Place).

King created a plaque of J. M. W. Turner on the building where he used to live on Queen Anne Street in London. This must have been a particularly interesting commission for King given his early inspiration at the age of 14 to become an artist after seeing the Turners that were exhibited in the National Gallery. Another important work was the sculpture of Christ the King for All Souls College, Oxford in 1940. He exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1910. In 1949 he was made president of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, now the Royal Society of Sculptors. Subsequently he received the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to Sculpture from the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

Our gratitude to Susan Caffrey (King's granddaughter) and her daughter, Adele Caffrey, who have written the above text and drawn our attention to the photograph.

The photograph is captioned: "The sculptor WCH King on the roof of Shell Mex House with one of his four sculptures in carved stone surrounding the clock."

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
William Charles Holland King

Creations i

J. M. W. Turner - W1

This plaque is so well integrated into the façade we believe it was part of t...

Read More

Richard Carr Kirkpatrick

The listing text gives “Granite stepped pedestal surmounted by granite crucif...

Read More

Other Subjects

Naomi Blake

Naomi Blake

Born Czechoslovakia around 1924 to 1927. Survived Auschwitz though most of her family did not. 1955-60 she studied at Hornsey School of Art.

Person, Sculpture, Czechoslovakia

1 memorial
John Bacon the Elder

John Bacon the Elder

Awarded the first gold medal for sculpture by the Royal Academy in 1769. Other works: Samuel Johnson (1796) in St Paul's Cathedral. Ornamental Passions writes : "John Bacon was the son of a clothwo...

Person, Sculpture

5 memorials
Thomas Rudge

Thomas Rudge

Active in 1921.  Probably the same Thomas Rudge at Ornamental Passions.

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial
William Frederick Woodington, ARA

William Frederick Woodington, ARA

William Frederick Woodington was born on 10 February 1806 at Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, the eighth of the ten children of Thomas Woodington (1767-1819) and Elizabeth Woodington née Styan. On 3...

Person, Art, Sculpture

6 memorials
Sydney March

Sydney March

Sculptor. From a family of sculptors who came from Hull.

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial

Previously viewed

The Right Reverend Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston, CR, KCMG.

The Right Reverend Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston, CR, KCMG.

Bishop and archbishop. Born Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston in Bedford. Ordained in 1937, he became the Bishop of Masai, Tanzania, then the Bishop of Stepney, London, and eventually the second Archb...

Person, Race Issues, Religion, South Africa

1 memorial
William Hogarth

William Hogarth

Satirical artist and illustrator. Trained as an engraver, he depicted the unseemly behaviour of contemporaries in works like 'The Beggar's Opera' (1728) and 'A Rake's Progress' (1732). Much of his ...

Person, Art, Seriously Famous

12 memorials
Alexander McKenzie

Alexander McKenzie

Landscape designer to the Metropolitan Board of Works. He wrote 'Parks, Open Spaces and Thoroughfares of London' (1869). Was the first Superintendent of Alexandra Palace Park, and was also bailiff ...

Person, Gardens / Agriculture, Scotland

1 memorial
Richard Hills

Richard Hills

A parishioner or member of the congregation of St Matthias, N16, who died in WW1.

Person

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Svitlana Tereschenko

Svitlana Tereschenko

E3, Bow Flyover Roundabout

Svitlana Tereschenko was killed when hit by a left-turning tipper lorry. Only a few weeks after this horrible death Brian Dorling died i...

2 subjects commemorated