Gilbert Ledward was born on 23 January 1888 at Chelsea, London. The Ledward family had a long history in sculpting and allied arts. His father, Richard Arthur Ledward was a sculptor, and his mother came from a family which had been in the pottery and figure-making business for generations. Gilbert was educated at St Mark’s College, Chelsea and then studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art under Professor Édouard Lantéri. In 1913 Ledward became the first English sculptor to be awarded the Prix de Rome for Sculpture by the Academy of France. During the Great War, Ledward served as an officer in the Royal Artillery and later, was much sought after as a sculptor of war memorials. In partnership with H Chalton Bradshaw, he executed the highly impressive bronze sculpture for the Household Division Memorial on Horse Guards Parade Ground (1922-25; detail of relief above). Again with Bradshaw, he carried out the sculpture for both the Malvern and Fordham war memorials. In 1926-29 with Bradshaw, he executed the sculpture on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing in Belgium for the Imperial War Graves Commission. A particularly impressive example of Ledward’s art can be found on the plinth of the ‘Cenotaph’ at Blackpool North, Lancashire. Situated in a landscaped sunken basin, it has clustered about it three miniature Stones of Sacrifice, with the names of Blackpool’s fallen inscribed on raised bronze tablets. The bronze relief panels were executed by Ledward in 1923. Ledward’s sculpture Awakening stands on Chelsea Embankment and was cast by the Morris Singer Foundry in 1923. During the 1930s Ledward turned from the established practice of modelling in clay to stone carving. While other artists pioneered the development of modern sculpture, Ledward’s work remained defiantly figurative. In 1934 he co-founded the firm ‘Sculptured Memorials and Headstones’ in an attempt to promote carving by regional artists in native stone. Again working in partnership with Bradshaw, he executed the coat of arms on the portal of the tunnel at Penmaenmawr in North Wales (opened 1935). In the years 1936-38 he carried out the remarkable sculpture on the exterior of the Adelphi Building in John Adam Street, London. After the Second World War, Ledward was commissioned to undertake three war memorials in Westminster Abbey. These were: The Commando Memorial (1947), unveiled by Winston Churchill (the original plaster cast of the memorial is in the collection of the National Army Museum at Chelsea); The Submarine Service (1948) and The Airborne Services Memorial (1948), which was also unveiled by Churchill. Working with the distinguished architect Philip Hepworth, Ledward executed the sculpture in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany for the Imperial War Graves Commission. Ledward designed the fountains in Sloane Square (1952-53) and sculpted the Cortauld Family Symbols on the loggia at the rear of Eltham Palace. Cast by Morris Singer, his King George V was all but completed in 1939, but not shipped out to Hong Kong until 1946. His sculptures of St Nicholas (1952) and St Christopher (1955) may be seen in the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street, London. His sculpted group The Seer (1957) is outside Mercury House, Knightsbridge, London. All British monarchs possess a Great Seal of the Realm for official purposes and Queen Elizabeth II has had two during her reign. The first Great Seal of Queen Elizabeth II was designed by Ledward and taken into service in 1953. Its replacement, designed by James Butler, was taken into use in 2001. Artistically, Ledward was one of the most skilled sculptors involved in the memorialisation process and his work was consistently of the highest quality. He was an outspoken member of the art establishment and deeply involved in the long-running debate about the place of sculpture in society and the professional standing of the sculptor. In a long and distinguished career, Ledward was a Member of the Council of the British School at Rome 1920, MRBS 1921, FRBS 1923, Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art 1926-29, ARA 1932, RA 1937, a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Royal Mint in 1938 and PRBS 1954. He died at home in Pembroke Walk, Kensington on 21 June 1960. In 1995 Ledward’s last work, his massive Portland stone frieze Vision and Imagination, was saved by the PMSA from destruction whilst the sculpture’s City of London building, Barclay’s Bank, was being demolished in June 1995. In 2003 Ledward’s significant contribution to British art received overdue recognition with the publication of Dr Catherine Moriarty’s book The Sculpture of Gilbert Ledward.