William Birnie Rhind


William Birnie Rhind RSA was a Scottish sculptor. Rhind was born in Edinburgh as the eldest son of sculptor John Rhind, and the elder brother of J. Massey Rhind. The two brothers set up a studio in Glasgow in 1885, then Birnie moved to Edinburgh, and his brother went to Paris, then permanently to America in 1889, despite the warnings of their father. His younger brother was Thomas Duncan Rhind, an architect.
His name is particularly connected to several dozen sculptural war memorials in the Edinburgh and Lothian area. One of these is a monument to the Royal Scots Greys on Princes Street in Edinburgh. Also of note is the 1919 bronze figure of a fallen officer, telling his men to "carry on", which acts as the school war memorial at Fettes College, a private school in Edinburgh.
William is buried with his parents, and Alice Stone, his wife, in the family plot in Warriston Cemetery in North Edinburgh towards the south end of the original cemetery, facing a main path.

Architectural sculpture