Margaret Winser (1868 – 29 December 1944) was an English sculptor, medallist, artist, and art teacher.

Life and works

Margaret Winser was born at

Rolvenden Rolvenden is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village is centred on the A28 Ashford to Hastings road, south-west of Tenterden. The settlement of Rolvenden Layne, south of Rolvenden, is also part of th ...

near

Tenterden Tenterden is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the remnant forest the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother. It was a member of the Cinque Ports Confederation. Its riverside today is not ...

in Kent during 1868, the daughter of Albert Winser, a farmer, and Mary Jane Winser. She began working as an assistant art teacher around 1891 and studied at the Dover School of Art, winning a number of National Competition awards. At some time she was a pupil of Auguste Rodin Queen's Medal for Champion Shots Navy, reverse

Queen's Medal for Champion Shots Navy, reverse

Naval Good Shooting and General Service Medals

In February 1904, the Royal Mint invited students of the Modelling School of the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

in South Kensington, London, to suggest designs for the reverse of the newly established Naval Good Shooting Medal. Winser's entry was selected and used, with the dies engraved by G. W. De Saulles. Although awards of the Naval Good Shooting Medal were discontinued in 1914, Winser's design is still used for the reverse of the

Queen's Medal for Champion Shots Queen's Medal for Champion Shots are a family of medals, awarded to the champions of small arms firing competitions held in several British Commonwealth countries and in several armed forces branches. Notable medals in this family are: * Queen' ...

for both the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

and the

New Zealand Naval Forces New Zealand Naval Forces was the name given to a division of the Royal Navy. The division was formed in 1913 and it operated under this name until 1921, when it became the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. History Originally the British ...

. Winser also designed the reverse of the Naval General Service Medal, instituted in August 1915 and awarded for minor Royal Navy campaigns until 1962.

Hastings War Memorial

After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Winser was commissioned to design the Hastings and St Leonards War Memorial in Alexandra Park,

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

. This included a bronze winged figure of victory and three bronze panels, depicting soldiers, sailors and airmen on active service. The memorial was dedicated on Sunday 26 March 1922. Her design for the memorial to the 17 lifeboatman drowned in the 1928 Rye lifeboat disaster was approved by the men’s relatives, but was not finally used.

Ellen Terry and Smallhythe Place

Smallhythe Place Smallhythe Place in Small Hythe, near Tenterden in Kent, is a half-timbered house built in the late 15th or early 16th century and since 1947 cared for by the National Trust. The house was originally called 'Port House' and before the River ...

, near Tenterden was bought by the actress Dame

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...

in 1899, and was her main residence in her later years. Winser, who lived close by and who was a visitor to the house, produced a plaster medallion relief of Terry in 1913. Dame Ellen died at home on 21 July 1928 aged 81, in the presence of her daughter and son. The next day, Winser was invited to Smallhythe Place and made a mould of Ellen Terry's face, from which she produced four death masks. Of these, two remain at Smallhythe Place, one was given to

Shakespeare Memorial Theatre The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) (originally called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) is a grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakesp ...

in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1933 and the fourth was presented to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1949. Two plaster casts of Terry's hands, were also made, probably by Winser, who also produced a bust of Ellen Terry based on these posthumous casts. The plaster medallion, death mask and posthumous bust, along with a relief plaque of the Hastings War Memorial that she designed, remain in the collection at Smallhythe Place, which is now a museum run by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

Other works

During her career, Winser created a large number of memorial plaques, statues and portrait medallions, including one of the violinist

Joseph Joachim Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

. From 1904 to 1929 she regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, mainly as a sculptor of portrait and other medallions. She was one of the female sculptors that the

Royal Society of British 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 ...

considered including in the Franco-British Exhibition of Science, Art and Industries held in London in 1908. Other work included providing the illustrations for a book 'Lays and Legends of the Weald of Kent' written by her sister Lilian Winser, published in 1897. She continued to live near

in Kent for most of her life, dying on 29 December 1944, aged 76.Dover Express, Friday 12 January 1945, page 5.

Examples of Winser's work

These are examples of her drawing and sculpture. File:Frontispiece of book 'Lays and Legends of the Weald of Kent'.png, Frontispiece of book 'Lays and Legends of the Weald of Kent' File:Renovating_the_War_Memorial,_Alexandra_Park_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1774306.jpg, Hastings War Memorial File:Hastings War Memorial, Sussex.png, Hastings War Memorial: Figure of Victory File:Hastings War Memorial, plaque, Sussex.jpg, Hastings War Memorial: bronze plaque File:Bust of Dame Ellen Terry by Margaret Winser.png, Bust of Ellen Terry,

, Kent

References

External links

Biographical Dictionary of Medallists Volume VI, pages 153–4
Compiled by L. Forrer. Spink & Son Ltd, 1916
Artwork by Margaret Winser held by the National Trust at Smallhythe Place, Kent

Plaster cast of death mask of Ellen Terry by Margaret Winser
National Portrait Gallery
Royal Academy of Arts: Exhibition catalogues mentioning Margaret Winser
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winser, Margaret 1868 births 1944 deaths 19th-century British sculptors 19th-century English women artists 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century English women artists Artists from Kent English women sculptors People from Tenterden