Thomas Brock

"The King spoke to me on Saturday very urgently about the progress upon the Queen Victoria Memorial" wrote Sir Schomberg McDonnell in July 1909. "His Majesty watches the work from his window every day, and being much concerned at what he considers a somewhat slow rate of progress, has commanded me to write and beg you to push matters on with all possible despatch." At the time this letter was written the large studio at Primrose Hill was a hive of industry. A number of the ablest and most experienced carvers, looking mere pigmies beside the work they were engaged upon, laboured with mallet and chisel, translating inch by inch into the stubborn Carrara marble the plaster models conveyed there from Osnaburgh Street. Equal activity prevailed at Osnaburgh Street. The assistant modellers were busy upon the sections assigned to them, the moulders cast in plaster the clay models as they left the sculptor's hands, working drawings were prepared and revised. In Italy the marble masonry was being prepared for the central pedestal, the flanking pedestals, the retaining walls, the arches, the fountain basins and the basin beds. The pieces were worked in the order in which they were required and shipped to this country the moment a sufficiently large consignment was ready. At Aberdeen the granite was being worked for the steps and the pavement. The granite brought to the memorial site totalled 1,600 tons, which will give some idea of the amount of material which went to make up this memorial. Writing in 1911, Mr Henry Pegram paid Brock a generous tribute when he said: "No one but a sculptor can appreciate the great difficulties you have overcome with such conspicuous success. No other sculptor could have carried the thing through to so happy an issue." "I don't like to see Mr Brock moving about that scaffolding in the way he does," King Edward remarked one day after watching the sculptor mounting and descending ladders as he passed from staging to staging of the tall erection of timber that stood around the central feature of the monument. "Oughtn't he to be cautioned?" On being told what the King had said, Brock’s reply was "I must see everything for myself." When the figure of Victory was about to be fixed into position on the summit of the monument, his clerk of works S. E. Wallis tried in vain to dissuade him from going up to the topmost staging. In order to reach this it was necessary to ascend a short ladder held in a perpendicular position on the extreme outside of the scaffolding with a sixty foot drop beneath. His answer was the same, and up he went to see that everything was in order. He afterwards remarked: "I didn't so much mind the going up, but coming down wasn't pleasant". Sculptors are of course accustomed to working at some distance from the ground. The wonder is that while doing so they so seldom meet with accidents; for their usual practise is to move back from their modelling table as frequently as a painter moves back from his canvas. When engaged upon the equestrian statue of King Edward for Delhi, Brock had to work some twelve feet from the studio floor. He never took any precautions to safeguard himself against accidents. Two or three thick planks, supported at either end by the steps of tall studio ladders, served him for a platform, and he, a man approaching seventy, worked, sometimes quite alone, in the temporary studio at Shepherds Bush upon that colossal group. When the danger attending the modelling of colossal figures was one day referred to, Brock replied: "I have often been on the point of stepping back and then suddenly remembered." The subconscious mind of sculptors must be more active than it is with the majority of us. When the German Emperor visited England in order to be present at King Edward's funeral, he displayed considerable interest in the Victoria Memorial, and expressed the wish to be taken over it by the sculptor himself. Arrangements were accordingly made, and the Emperor did not hesitate to ascend to the first staging, some twenty-five feet up, to inspect the statue of the Queen and the three groups of Motherhood, Justice and Truth). After studying Motherhood for a while in silence, he turned to the sculptor and said: "I like that. I like that very much. But why not put in its place a statue of King Edward. The monument would then serve as a memorial to him as well as to Queen Victoria." Though astonished at the suggestion, the sculptor bowed respectfully, whereupon the Emperor went on: "It seems to me a very good idea. It wouldn't affect your design at all. I'll mention it to the King". He was moving away, and Brock was about to follow him, when a tall thick-necked gentleman, a member of the Emperor's suite, took him by the sleeve. To Brock’s astonishment and disconcertment – for the Emperor had scarcely disappeared from sight on his way to inspect Truth – this gentleman exclaimed loudly in guttural English: "Don't take any notice of anything he says." The Emperor, however, was as good as his word, and Brock was asked whether he thought a standing figure of King Edward could be substituted for Motherhood. St. James's Palace, S.W. 5 June 1910. My dear Mr Brock, The King wishes me to tell you that what he would like would be a standing figure of King Edward in the robes and dress of the Garter. Yours sincerely, Esher So a small statuette, made to the one-tenth scale, was cast in plaster and placed in position on the completed model at the studio. When the committee inspected it, they agreed with the sculptor that the effect was not pleasing. They also shared his view that to represent on the same monument a King and Queen separated from each other and looking in opposite directions was somewhat lacking in dignity, and to Brock's relief the matter was allowed to drop.