Alfred Horace "Gerry" Gerrard

RBS RBS may refer to: Organisations Banking * The Royal Bank of Scotland, a retail banking subsidiary of NatWest Group ** RBS International, the offshore banking arm of NatWest Group Education * Regent's Business School * Rotterdam Business School ...

(7 May 1899 – 13 June 1998) was an English

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

sculptor. He was head of the sculpture department at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

from 1925 and professor of sculpture there from 1949 to 1968, where he taught a number of well-known sculptors.

Early life

Gerrard was born on 7 May 1899 in

Hartford, Cheshire Hartford is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies at the intersection of the A559 road and the West Coast Main Line (between Liverpool and Crew ...

where his family had been farming for four centuries. He was the youngest of five children and was directly descended from the 16th century

herbalist Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remed ...

John Gerard John Gerard (also John Gerarde, c. 1545–1612) was an English herbalist with a large garden in Holborn, now part of London. His 1,484-page illustrated ''Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes'', first published in 1597, became a popular gard ...

. Gerrard was educated at Northwich Technical School which he left in 1916. During the First World War, he served in the army with the Cameron Highlanders, the

Black Watch The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment was created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881, when the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment ...

and the

Gordon Highlanders Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

and in the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

(RFC) from 1917. In the RFC, Gerrard flew Farman MF.11s and F.E.2Bs as a night bomber pilot, crashing and injuring his back on one occasion when his

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

fell off.

Career

After being

demobilized Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and milita ...

Gerrard studied at the

Manchester School of Art Manchester School of Art in Manchester, England, was established in 1838 as the Manchester School of Design. It is the second oldest art school in the United Kingdom after the Royal College of Art which was founded the year before. It is now par ...

in 1919 and at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1920 where

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a Caricature, caricaturist. He became an influentia ...

was his teacher and contemporaries included Samuel Rabinovitch. In 1925, Tonks appointed Gerrard head of the school's sculpture department, a position he held until 1948 after which he was Professor of Sculpture until 1968 and then

Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. In the 1920s, Gerrard elected to wear a standard set of clothes –

sports jacket A sport coat, also called a sport jacket (or sports coat or sports jacket in American English), is a men's smart casual lounge jacket designed to be worn on its own without matching trousers, traditionally for sporting purposes. Styles, fabrics, ...

, corduroy trousers, a collarless shirt and a yellow

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

. He bought multiple copies of these items and wore them regularly for decades. St Anselm, Kennington Cross, London SE11 - Doorway - geograph

During the Second World War, Gerrard was a

Staff Captain Staff captain is the English translation of a number of military ranks: Historical use of the rank Czechoslovakia In the Czechoslovak Army, until 1953, Staff Captain ( cs, štábní kapitán, sk, štábny kapitán) was a senior captain ran ...

attached to the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

working on

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...

projects. Following a plane crash in which he was badly injured, he almost had an arm amputated, but persuaded his doctors to save it so that he could continue sculpting. In a long teaching career, Gerrard taught and influenced numerous artists, among them

Kenneth Armitage William Kenneth Armitage (18 July 1916 – 22 January 2002) was a British sculptor known for his semi-abstract bronzes. Life Armitage was born in Leeds on July 18, 1916, the youngest of three children studied at the Leeds College of Art and th ...

Karin Jonzen Karin Margareta Jonzen, née Löwenadler, (22 December 1914 – 29 January 1998) was a British figure sculptor whose works, in bronze, terracotta and stone, were commissioned by a number of public bodies in Britain and abroad. Biography Karin L� ...

Eduardo Paolozzi Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art. Early years Eduardo Paolozzi was born on 7 March 1 ...

and

F. E. McWilliam Frederick Edward McWilliam (30 April 1909 – 13 May 1992), was a Northern Irish surrealist sculptor. He worked chiefly in stone, wood and bronze. Biography McWilliam was born in Banbridge, County Down, Ireland, the son of Dr William McWilliam ...

. In the austerity years after the Second World War, Gerrard kept the school supplied with raw materials for sculpting by salvaging stone, wood and metal from bomb sites. Well respected for his expertise as a teacher and his generosity, many of his former students would visit him at his home in Kent where he continued sculpting into his eighties. Whilst teaching at the Slade, Gerrard received private sculpture commissions, often executed on a large scale in stone, as well as producing murals for ocean liners. He also worked as a book illustrator with his future wife Katherine Leigh-Pemberton, producing wood cuts for ''Elephants and Ethnologists'' (by

Grafton Elliot Smith Sir Grafton Elliot Smith (15 August 1871 – 1 January 1937) was an Australian-British anatomist, Egyptologist and a proponent of the hyperdiffusionist view of prehistory. He believed in the idea that cultural innovations occur only once and ...

) and ''Egyptian Mummies'' (by Smith and

Warren Royal Dawson Warren Royal Dawson OBE FRSE FRSM FZS FSA FLS FRSL (13 October 1888, Ealing – 5 May 1968, Bletchley) was an English librarian, insurance agent, Egyptologist and antiquarian. Biography He was born in Ealing in west London on 13 October 1888 ...

) in 1924 and for the ''Book of Bath'' in 1925. During 1944–45 he worked as a war artist. Among his sculptural works are: *''Memorial Stone for a Hunter'', 1926. Displayed temporarily at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

before its final installation. *''North Wind'', 1928–29. One of eight personifications of the four winds commissioned by

Charles Holden Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

and

Frank Pick Frank Pick Hon. RIBA (23 November 1878 – 7 November 1941) was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway, before moving to the Underground Electric Railways Company ...

for the headquarters of the

Underground Electric Railways Company of London The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited (UERL), known operationally as the Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an und ...

55 Broadway 55 Broadway is a Grade I listed building close to St James's Park in London. Upon completion, it was the tallest office block in the city. In 1931 the building earned architect Charles Holden the RIBA London Architecture Medal. In 2020, it was ...

. *''St Anselm'', 1933, St Anselm's church,

Kennington Cross Kennington Cross is a locality in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is at the junction of two major roads, Kennington Lane that links Vauxhall Cross with the Elephant and Castle and Kennington Road that runs from Waterloo to Kennington Park. At ...

. *''Monumental Parcel'', gilded carved wooden panels of horses in a forest for RMS ''Britannic''. *''Stages in the Development of Man'', 1955, four wall panels built into the end façade of a building in

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...

. *''The Dance'', 1960, a sculpture wall for which he was awarded the

Royal British Society of Sculptors The Royal Society of Sculptors is a British charity established in 1905 which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary sculpture on Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, London. It ...

' Silver medal. An exhibition of his work was staged at the South London Art Gallery in 1978. Collections that contain work by Gerrard include the Tate Gallery, and the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

. The

Henry Moore Institute Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

archive contains works by Gerrard and his papers.

Family

Gerrard married three times: #1933, Katherine Leigh-Pemberton (died 1970) #1972, Nancy Sinclair (died 1995) #1995, Karen Sinclair He had no children.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

*
Hemel Online – ''Stages in the Development of Man''

Imperial War Museum

''Wing Commander James E ('Johnnie') Johnson''

''Wing Commander John C Button''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerrard, Alfred 1899 births 1998 deaths People from Cheshire Academics of the Slade School of Fine Art English sculptors English male sculptors Modern sculptors British war artists British Army personnel of World War I British Army personnel of World War II Royal Air Force personnel of World War I British World War I pilots 20th-century British sculptors