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