Onslow Whiting

Onslow Ernest Whiting (4 June 1872 – 4 August 1937)[1] was an English sculptor and teacher.

Born in Shoreditch,[2] from 1901 to 1927 Whiting worked as a teacher at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.[1] The sculptor Cecil Thomas was among his pupils.[3] His best known works are war memorials. The Gloucestershire Regiment Memorial, Queen's Road, Bristol was listed in 1977. It commemorates the Boer War and consists of a bronze figure of a soldier on a granite plinth. It was unveiled by Earl Roberts in 1905.[4] The bronze was cast by the Parlanti Foundry of London.[5]The Letchworth Cross at Station Place, Letchworth, where Whiting went to live in 1905, commemorates the fallen of the First World War and was unveiled in 1921 by Viscount Hampden.[6] It was listed in 2013.[7]

Whiting was a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors and the Art Workers Guild and an Associate of the Guild of Art Craftsmen.[8]

Whiting created many sculpture panels in metal as well as architectural metalwork. A panel entitled St George and the Dragon was exhibited in 1899 at the sixth exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.[9] He exhibited a letter-plate entitled Mercury at the exhibition of 1910, where it was for sale for £3 3s.[10] His door knocker Prometheus Bound was shown at the Spring Exhibition of the City Art Gallery, Leeds in 1897 and was for sale by commission in bronze for £10 10s. The sculpture panel A Dream was also shown at this exhibition.[11]

Three of his works were published in the journal Academy Architecture and Architectural Review. Field Guns Going into Action (vol. 20 (1901) 85) is a metal relief sculpture showing a vivid battle scene from the Boer War. His Designs for Bell-pushes, Finger-plates, etc. (vol.20 (1901) 87) make creative use of human figures in architectural hardware. A Young Minstrel (vol. 23 (1903) 97) is a three-dimensional sculpture of a boy playing a flute.

He died at St Catherine's Nursing Home, Letchworth[12], the death being registered at Hitchin, Hertfordshire.[13]

He is buried in the graveyard of the Church_of_St_Mary,_Letchworth. The headstone is an elegant monolith, bearing the legend "Sculptor".

References
  1. "Mr Onslow Ernest Whiting". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951.
  2. 1911 England Census
  3. 'Thomas, Cecil' in Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford University Press. 2006.
  4. "Gloucestershire Regiment Memorial". Historic England.
  5. The Sphere magazine 1905 page 239
  6. "Letchworth Cross". Imperial War Museum.
  7. "Letchworth Garden City War Memorial". Historic England.
  8. "Mr Onslow Ernest Whiting". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951.
  9. Arts and Crafts Society: Catalogue of the Sixth Exhibition. 1899. p. 69.
  10. Arts and Crafts Society: Catalogue of the Ninth Exhibition. 1910. p. 143.
  11. Catalogue of the Spring Exhibition, The City Art Gallery, Leeds. 1897. p. 79.
  12. "Mr Onslow Ernest Whiting". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951.
  13. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007
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