Thomas Brock


Sir Thomas Brock was an English sculptor and medallist, whose works include the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, London. Other commissions included the redesign of the effigy of Queen Victoria for coinage, and the massive bronze equestrian statue of Edward, the Black Prince, in City Square, Leeds.

Life

Brock was born on 1 March 1847 in Worcester, attended the School of Design there, and then undertook an apprenticeship in modelling at the Worcester Royal Porcelain Works. In 1866 he became a pupil of the sculptor John Henry Foley. After Foley's death in 1874, Brock finished some of his commissions. It was his completion of Foley's statue of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial which first brought Brock to prominence.
His group The Moment of Peril was followed by The Genius of Poetry, at the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen, Eve, and other imaginative works that mark his development. His portrait works include busts, such as those of Lord Leighton and Queen Victoria, statues, such as Sir Richard Owen and Henry Philpott, bishop of Worcester, and sepulchral monuments such as Lord Leighton in St Paul's Cathedral.
In 1901 Brock was asked to make a colossal equestrian statue of Edward the Black Prince for Leeds City Square, and was also given perhaps his most significant commission, the vast multi-figure Imperial Memorial to Queen Victoria to be set up in front of Buckingham Palace. He had previously made statues of the queen to celebrate her golden and diamond jubilees, and designed the depiction of her "veiled" or "widowed" head, used on all gold, silver and bronze coinage between 1893 and 1901. According to legend, at the unveiling of the memorial in May 1911, George V was so moved by the excellence of the memorial that he called for a sword and knighted Brock on the spot.
Brock was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1883 and a full member in 1891.
He died in London on 22 August 1922.

Family

Brock married in 1869, and had eight children. His youngest son was the painter Edmond Brock.

Works