Glasgow - City of Sculpture
By Gary Nisbet
Charles d'Orville
Pilkington Jackson
(1887-1973)

Born at Garlennick, Cornwall, he studied sculpture at the ECA , winning a travelling scholarship in 1910. He later taught at the school and executed architectural and public sculpture around Scotland.

After world War I, he executed the Rothesay War Memorial (1922), to a design by Charles E Tweedie & Sons, and was the supervising sculptor for the Scottish National War Memorial, Edinburgh Castle.

Jackson's contribution to the building's sculpture comprises the regimental badges on the exterior, heraldic panels and trophies in the interior, the figure of Reveille above the entrance, and the bronze panels commemorationg the Mercantile Marine and Royal Marines (1924-7).

His other work includes sculpture for the David Livingstone Centre at Blantyre, including the interior panels illustrating the life of David Livingstone (c. 1929), and the World Fountain in the grounds (1935, restored 2005); Foam Fountain, for the Empire Exhibition, Glasgow (1938, now at Greenbank Gardens, Glasgow), and the University of Glasgow Fifth Centenery Gates, University Avenue, cast by Charles Henshaw of Edinburgh (1951).

His most famous work is the equestrian Robert the Bruce, at Bannockburn (1964).

A copy of the statue was later erected at Calgary College of Art in Canada, and one of his sketch models for the statue, with the horse rearing and the King in a more beligerent pose, was cast in fibre-glass as Robert The Bruce In Battle, for the forecourt of Chivas Brothers Distillery in Paisley (1964).

He exhibited at the RGIFA , 1913-61, and was elected ARBA, 1922.



Sources:

  • GH [Rothesay War Memorial], 18 September, 1922, p. 5;
  • Billcliffe , vol 2;
  • Laperriere , vol 2;
  • McEwan ;
  • Information from Karen Carruthers (David Livingstone Centre);
  • Sir Lawrence Weaver (1928 edn.) The Scottish National War Memorial At The Castle Edinburgh, London;
  • Scots Magazine, vol 117, no. 1, April, 1982, [Letters To The Editor] Bruce Statue (Bannockburn Monument, Calgary), p. 98.

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