William Reid Dick

Biography

Early life

Born into a working-class family in the Gorbals, Glasgow, Dick was apprenticed to a firm of stonemasons at the age of twelve and during the next five years he learned to carve stone and took evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1892, under the supervision of George Frampton, Dick worked on some of the external carvings for the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and completed his apprenticeship in 1896. From 1904 to 1907, Dick returned to the Glasgow School of Art to take a mixture of day and evening classes in drawing and sculpture. In 1907, he graduated and accepted a teaching position at the Bellshill Academy in Lanarkshire but moved to London in 1908. There Dick took evening classes at the South London Technical School of Art whilst working as a studio assistant for the sculptor Edwin Whitney-Smith. Also in 1908, Dick had his first work exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. He earned further recognition in 1911 with a marble bust of Harry Lauder which was also shown at the Royal Academy.

In 1914 Dick married Catherine Emma Treadwell, with whom he had three children. The couple lived in the St John's Wood area of London until 1938 when they purchased a large house and studio in Maida Vale, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

World War I

In September 1914 Dick joined the Territorial Army and from 1915 to 1919 served with the Royal Engineers in both France and Palestine. When Dick enlisted in September 1914 he joined the 5th London Field Ambulance section of the Royal Army Medical Corps and subsequently transferred to the 3rd Army Field Survey Co, part of the Royal Engineers and then the 7th Field Survey Co. He was described as a photographer with the 7th Field Survey Co. His Army Service record shows his profession as "sculptor". He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the British War and Victory Medals. While serving in northern France, Dick produced a number of small statuettes by using the local clay deposits.

Post-war career

Dick designed several war memorials notably at Bushey, at Rickmansworth and the eagle sculpture atop the Royal Air Force Memorial on the Victoria Embankment in London. He received a major commission for the Kitchener Memorial Chapel (1922–25) in St Paul's Cathedral, London. The focal point of this design was a Pièta, which won a gold medal at the Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in 1925. These works secured his reputation and election to the Royal Academy in 1928, having been elected an Associate member in 1921. His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics. In 1935 Dick was Knighted and elected President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, a post he held until 1938. From 1938 to 1952 Dick served as King's Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland and then, from 1952 until his death, Dick was the Queen's Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland. He attended numerous royal events and created several portraits and memorials to members of the Royal Family plus several busts of political and artistic figures of the time.

Alongside the public monuments and memorials Dick created he also sculpted busts and statuettes which he exhibited on a regular basis at the Royal Academy, at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society and at the Paris Salon. Dick was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1939. Throughout his career, Dick served on numerous committees, among these the Royal Fine Art Commission (1928–42), the Royal Mint Advisory Committee (1936–53), and the Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery (1934–41).

Dick died at his home in Maida Vale and was cremated at Golders Green crematorium. In October 1963 a memorial tablet to him was unveiled in the crypt of St Pauls' Cathedral. His archives are held by the Tate Gallery.

Public works

1920–1929

1930–1934

1935–1939

1940 and later

Other works

• Bust of Lady Rhoda Birley in 1908?.
• A series of figures for St Andrew's House in Edinburgh, 1939, representing Architecture, Statecraft, Health, Agriculture, Fisheries and Education
• Harry Dwight Ripley Monument, St. Marylebone Cemetery and Crematorium.
• Bronze bust of Winston Churchill, 1943.
• A bust of George V for the Mansion House in London.
• A marble bust of Edwin Lutyens, 1932, for the Marble Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi
• Bust of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in Bolton Town Hall, c. 1946
• Bust of Adelaide Stoll, London Coliseum

Several public galleries, including the Tate in Britain and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, hold collections of works by Dick.

References

References

1. University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII. (2011). "Sir William Reid Dick RA, HRSA, KCVO". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951.
2. Gary Nisbet. "Sir William Reid Dick (1879–1961)".
3. (19 June 2013). "Dick, Sir William Reid (1879–1961) Knight Sculptor".
4. "Dick, Sir William Reid".
5. "Reid Dick's Service Record WO 363/MIS-SORTS 34/52". "Burnt Records" series, National Archives, UK.
6. Patricia R. Andrew. (2014). "Chism In Time Scottish War Art and Artists in the Twentieth Century". Birlinn Ltd.
7. Frances Spalding. (1990). "20th Century Painters and Sculptors". Antique Collectors' Club.
8. James Mackay. (1977). "The Dictionary of Western Sculptors in Bronze". Antique Collectors' Club.
9. "William Reid Dick". Olympedia.
10. David Buckman. (2006). "Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L". Art Dictionaries Ltd.
11. (31 October 2011). "Dick, William Reid (Sir)".
12. "War Memorials Register: Angus Watson and Co Ltd". [[Imperial War Museum]].
13. "War Memorials Register: Rickmansworth Cenotaph". [[Imperial War Museum]].
14. {{NHLE
15. "War Memorials Register: Rickmansworth". Imperial War Museum.
16. {{NHLE
17. "War Memorials Register: Bushey". Imperial War Museum.
18. {{NHLE
19. Derek Boorman. (1988). "At the Going Down of the Sun: British First World War Memorials". William Sessions Limited.
20. "War Memorials Register: Royal Air Force". Imperial War Museum.
21. {{NHLE
22. "The Chapels".
23. "War Memorials Register: Field Marshal Earl Kitchener". Imperial War Museum.
24. "Pietà and Dancing Putti".
25. "Kitchener Memorial".
26. John Blackwood. (1989). "London's Immortels. The Complete Outdoor Commemorative Statues". Savoy Press.
27. "Effigy, Kitchener Memorial".
28. "Kitchener Memorial".
29. "The Menin Gate Memorial".
30. Jo Darke. (1991). "The Monument Guide to England and Wales". Macdonald Illustrated.
31. {{NHLE
32. "Sketch for Leverhulme Memorial (Port Sunlight) c. 1930".
33. "Sketch for Memorial Group c. 1928".
34. (2019). "Art Deco Britain: Buildings of the interwar years". Pavilion Books.
35. "Controlled Energy sculptures".
36. {{NHLE
37. "The Arras Memorial".
38. Mary Ann Steggles & Richard Barnes. (2011). "British Sculpture in India: New Views & Old Memories". Frontier Publishing.
39. University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII. (2011). "The Earl of Willingdon, GMSI, GMIE, GCMG, GBE". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951.
40. (2011). "Freeman Freeman-Thomas, Marquess of Willingdon".
41. {{NHLE
42. "Statue of Sir John Soane".
43. "Statue of Sir John Soane".
44. {{NHLE
45. "Adelaide House".
46. (2011). "Main Entrance, Selfridges Department Store".
47. {{NHLE
48. "Sir James Caird".
49. {{NHLE
50. "''Herald''".
51. University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII. (2011). "Francis William Doyle Jones". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951.
52. "Photograph of Sir William Reid Dick's effigies of King George V and Queen Mary,on their tomb".
53. (November 2025). "Franklin Roosevelt".
54. {{NHLE
55. {{NHLE
56. "War Memorials Register: Horlicks Limited war memorial". Imperial War Museum.
57. {{NHLE
58. {{NHLE
59. "'LADY RHODA BIRLEY', A REID DICK CARVED STONE BUST".
60. {{Historic Environment Scotland
61. [http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/dick/7.html Harry Dwight Ripley Monument] Victorian Web. Retrieved 21 November 2012
62. "Bust of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother".
63. "Bust of Adelaide Stoll".
64. "Sir William Reid Dick".
65. "William Reid Dick".