Charles Sargeant Jagger

Charles Sargeant Jagger
Detail from Jagger's Royal Artillery Memorial
Born	17 December 1885 Kilnhurst,Rotherham,Yorkshire,England
Died	16 November 1934 (aged 48) London, England
Education	Sheffield School of Art,Royal College of Art
Known for	sculpture,relief
Notable work	Royal Artillery Memorial,London Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett
Awards	British Prix de Rome,Military Cross
Patron(s)	Imperial War Graves Commission (nowCommonwealth War Graves Commission)

Sentry by Charles Sargeant Jagger

Charles Sargeant JaggerMCARA(17 December 1885 – 16 November 1934) was a Britishsculptorwho, following active service in theFirst World War,sculpted many works on the theme of war. He is best known for his war memorials, especially theRoyal Artillery MemorialatHyde Park Cornerand theGreat Western Railway War MemorialinPaddington Railway Station.He also designed several other monuments around Britain and other parts of the world.

Biography

Jagger was the son of a colliery manager, and was educated atSheffield Royal Grammar School.At age 14 he became an apprentice metal engraver with the Sheffield firmMappin & Webb.

He studied at theSheffield School of Artbefore moving to London to study sculpture at theRoyal College of Art(1908–11) underÉdouard Lantéri.Jagger worked as Lanteri's assistant, and also as instructor in modelling at theLambeth School of Art.He counted among his friendsWilliam Reid DickandWilliam McMillan.His early works dealt with classical and literary themes and were influenced by theNew Sculpturemovement in the focus on medievalism and on surface qualities.His student work won him a travelling scholarship that made it possible for him to spend several months in Rome and Venice. In 1914 he won theBritish Prix de Rome.

Both his elder sister,Edith,and his younger brother,David,were painters.

Military service

When war broke out in 1914, Jagger gave up his Rome scholarship to join the army. At first, Jagger joined theArtists' Rifles,and in 1915 he was commissioned in theWorcestershire Regiment.Jagger served inGallipoliand on theWestern Front,and was wounded three times. He was awarded theMilitary Crossfor gallantry.

Work as a sculptor

Jagger's style tended towards realism, especially his portrayal of soldiers. The fashion at the time was for idealism and modernism in sculpture, but Jagger's figures were rugged and workman-like, earning him a reputation for 'realist' sculpture.Although Jagger was commissioned as a sculptor of a variety of monuments, it is for his war memorials that he is chiefly remembered.

Whilst convalescing from war wounds in 1919, he began work onNo Man's Land,a low relief which is today part of theTateCollection.It depicts a "listening post", a technique of trench warfare in which a soldier would hide among the corpses, broken stretchers and barbed wire of No Man's Land, in order to listen for the enemy.

The Royal Artillery Memorial

HisRoyal Artillery Memorial(1921–25) at Hyde Park Corner in London is one of his best-known works. It features a giant sculpture of ahowitzersurrounded by four bronze soldiers and stone relief scenes, and is dedicated to casualties in the BritishRoyal Regiment of Artilleryin World War I.When Jagger was commissioned to work on the Royal Artillery Memorial, he remarked to theDaily Expressthe "experience in the trenches persuaded me of the necessity for frankness and truth".

Monumental works of the period used symbolic figures rather than actual depictions of soldiers. Furthermore, during the war years, a government edict had banned images of dead British soldiers. Jagger defied both these conventions by creating realistic bronze figures of three standing soldiers and the body of a dead soldier laid out and shrouded by a greatcoat.The Gunner became the inspiration for a hero in the children's fantasy novelStoneheartbyCharlie Fletcher.

Jagger was made anAssociate of the Royal Academyin 1926.

After the demand for war memorials had subsided, Jagger continued to receive important commissions and his works were increasingly influenced byArt Deco.Some of his works include allegorical stone figures at Imperial Chemical House, London (1928) and The Kelham Rood (1929).

In 1931 Jagger was commissioned by architectEdwin Lutyensto design a sculpture of Christ the King for the designs forLiverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.The sculpture was never executed because Lutyens' design was extremely costly and funding for the building work ran out. A model of Lutyens' unrealised building is displayed in theWalker Art Gallery.Jagger was also commissioned to provide sculptures of elephants and imperial lions for Lutyens'government buildings in New Delhi,India.

Jagger produced many smaller works, such as busts, statuettes, reliefs, and exhibited them at the Royal Academy in 1913–34, his work continued to be exhibited posthumously, including at the GlasgowEmpire Exhibitionin 1938.

Charles Sargeant Jagger blue plaque in his home village of Kilnhurst, South Yorkshire (2018)

Charles Sargeant Jagger died suddenly frompneumoniaon 16 November 1934. He was in the process of finishing a statue ofGeorge Vfor New Delhi at his death, and work on it was completed by William Reid Dick.A documentary about Jagger's work and featuring this statue ofGeorge Vwas in the process of being filmed byPathe.This was edited into a short two-minute filmic obituary which was released under the titleAn Unfinished Symphony in Stone.

A touring memorial exhibition was organised by two of his chief patrons in 1935–36 (Freda, Lady Forres andHenry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett). Two years later a second touring exhibition was arranged calledArt of the Jagger Family,which featured sculptures by Charles Sargeant Jagger together with portraits by his brother,David(also highly successful), and landscapes and flower subjects by his sister,Edith.Thereafter his reputation declined until 1985–86 when a large retrospective exhibition entitledWar and Peace Sculpturewas held at theImperial War Museum,with theMappin Art Gallery,Sheffield.

A blue plaque was unveiled in his home village, Kilnhurst by the Rotherham District Civic Society in October 2018. A similar plaque was unveiled in 2000 at his London home, 67 Albert Bridge Road, Battersea.

Selected works

Jagger's major commissions include the following:

London, United Kingdom
Work	Date	Image	Description	Location	Notes
No Man's Land	1919–20		Bronze relief of a soldier hiding among the dead bodies, broken stretchers and barbed wire of No Man's Land at 'listening post'.	Victoria & Albert Museum	Original plaster had a verse:"O, little mighty band that stood for England That with our bodies for a living shield Guarded her slow awakening"(removed in the bronze). On loan from theTate Collection[1]
Great Western Railway War Memorial	1922		Bronze statue of a soldier reading a letter from home	Platform 1,Paddington Station	To commemorate the founding of theArmy Post Office Corpsin 1882, its successor theRoyal Engineers(Postal & Courier Services), commissioned Jill Tweed and Mike Smith to sculpt a life-size statue of Jagger's Great Western Railway War Memorial.The statue entitledLetter from Homewas unveiled atInglis Barracks,Mill Hill,Londonon 16 July 1982 byQueen Elizabeth II.In 2007 the statue was moved toRAF Northolt.
Royal Artillery Memorial	1925		Four bronze figures on Portland stone plinth	Hyde Park Corner
Ernest Henry Shackleton	1927–32		Bronze figure mounted in wall alcove	Royal Geographical Society	The Ernest H. Shackleton Monument(The Victorian Web)
The Builder, Marine Transport, AgricultureandChemistry	1928		Portland stone figure groups on 5th floor balustrade	Imperial Chemical House,Millbank
St. GeorgeandBritannia	1928		Portland stone figures on entrance gate	Thames House,Millbank
The Kelham Rood	1929		Bronze Crucifixion triptych group of Christ, Mary and Mary Magdalen	St John the Divine, Kennington	Originally sculpted for the chapel atKelham Hall,Nottinghamshire
The Scandal Relief	1930		BronzeArt Decorelief of embracing figures with accompanying fire basket	Victoria & Albert Museum	Private commission fromHenry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchettfor the interior of Mulberry House,Smith Square,Westminsterpurchased by the museum for £106,000
United Kingdom outside London
Work	Date	Image	Description	Location	Notes
Torfrida	c.1911	Torfrida	Praying female figure	Clifton Park Museum,Rotherham	Torfrida(The Victorian Web)
Guildhall Square Cenotaph	1921		Two stone statues of machine gunners (Vickers and Lewis guns)	Guildhall Square,Portsmouth	[2]
Sculpture of a Sentry	1921		Bronze soldier wearing greatcoat and helmet, holding a bayonet	Watts Warehouse(now the Britannia Hotel),Manchester	A maquette of the Manchester Sentry can also be seen at theWalker Art Gallery,Liverpool
Bedford War Memorial	1921		Stone figure of the Anglo Saxon Lady Athelflaed, ruler of Mercia, vanquishing a dragon	Bedford	The monument stands on the Embankment opposite Rothsay Gardens
Hoylake and West Kirby War Memorial	1922		Two 3m bronze figures against an 11.5m granite obelisk - hooded woman and infantry soldier holding a bayonet rifle	Grange Hill,Hoylake,Merseyside	The soldier's bayonet has been removed due to previous vandalism, but is reinstated annually for the Armistice Day Memorial Service.
Brimington War Memorial	1921		Marble Britannia figure, winged helmet, sword and shield; shield decorated with lion, scales and wreath	Church of St Michael and All Angels,Brimington,Derbyshire	The figure originally stood on a plinth which was later stolen
Monument toCharles Pelham, Lord Worsley	1914		Marble relief of Lord Worsley kneeling at prayer	All Saints Church,Brocklesby,Lincolnshire	Monument is in the 17th century style to complement the adjacent Pelham family tomb of 1629
Christ the King	1931		Maquette for Lutyens' model of his proposal forLiverpool Metropolitan Cathedral	Liverpool	Commissioned by Sir Edwin Lutyens and intended for the top of the west front; not executed, but several posthumous metal casts exist.Lutyens' model is at theWalker Art Gallery,Liverpool
Worldwide
Work	Date	Image	Description	Location	Notes
Anglo-Belgian Memorial	1923		Sculptures of a British and Belgian soldier side by side with reliefs either side	Brussels,Belgium	Casts of the reliefs are held at theImperial War Museum,London
Nieuport Memorial	1928		Three stone lions standing guard around a cenotaph	Nieuwpoort,Belgium	Memorial commemorates 566 soldiers from the Antwerp Expedition of October 1914 and subsequent battles in the area in July 1917.
Cambrai Memorial	1928		Two stone reliefs depicting soldiers fighting and carrying the wounded in the trenches	Louverval Military Cemetery,Cambrai,France	Memorial commemorates over 7000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917
Port Tewfik Memorial	1926		Two crouching tiger sculptures guarded the memorial	Originally at Port Tewfik (or Port Taufiq),Suez Canal,Egypt	Jagger's work was destroyed in the Israeli-Egyptian fighting (date uncertain); the memorial was relocated to theHeliopolisWar Cemetery.
Shrine of Remembrance	1927–34		Two bronze soldiers - Driver holding a horse bridle, and British infantry soldier standing guard with rifle and bayonet.	Melbourne,Australia	The "Wipers" figure is a re-casting of the soldier from the Hoylake and West Kirby memorial, and the "Driver" is a re-casting from the Royal Artillery Memorial in London.
Viceroy's Houseand theJaipur Column	1929		Mughal-style Elephants in the outer walls; bas-reliefs on the Jaipur Column	New Delhi,India	Commissioned by SirEdwin Lutyens
Lord Readingstatue	1920s		Statue ofLord Reading,Viceroy of India(1921-1926).	Reading,England	One of the statues commissioned from Jagger by Lutyens for New Delhi, later moved to Eldon Square gardens in Reading in 1971.
Lord Hardingestatue	1928		Statue ofLord Hardinge of Penshurst,Viceroy of India(1910-1916).	New Delhi, India	One of the statues commissioned from Jagger by Lutyens for New Delhi, later moved toCoronation Park.
George Vstatue	1936		Large statue ofKing George Vwearing his robes for the Delhi Durbar of 1911	New Delhi, India	Unfinished at the time of Jagger's death in 1934, this statue was completed by William Reid Dick and was originally erected in 1936 under a Lutyens-designed canopy at theIndia Gatearch. It was moved in 1968 toCoronation Park.

References

• Borough of Bedford, BedfordshireArchived8 July 2011 at theWayback Machine

Further reading

• Compton, Ann, ed. (1985),Charles Sargeant Jagger: War and Peace Sculpture,Imperial War Museum,ISBN0-901627-31-3(exhibition catalogue)
• Compton, Ann (2004),The Sculpture of Charles Sargeant Jagger,Ashgate Publishing,ISBN0-85331-864-6
• Penny, Nicholas(November 1981). "English Sculpture and the First World War".Oxford Art Journal.4(2): 36–42.doi:10.1093/oxartj/4.2.36.

External links

• An Unfinished Symphony in Stone(Pathé,00:02:26) - a short film about Jagger's work on the sculpture of King George V
• Great Western Railway War Memorial- York University Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History
• "Charles Sargeant Jagger. Sculptor (1885-1934)".Your Archives.National Archives. Archived fromthe originalon 10 June 2007.Retrieved6 August2017.- extensive summary of works on the National Archives wiki
• Brits Oorlogsmonument/Monument britannique- the Jagger's Brussels Monument (Dutch language)
• No Man's Landin the Tate Collection (with biography)
• "The Scandal Relief".Sculpture.Victoria and Albert Museum.Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2009.Retrieved11 June2008.
• Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections