![Exeter_POW_6[1] | by Gordon T Lawson](http://live.staticflickr.com/4090/5171844489_e4d838bd0e_w.jpg)
Gordon T Lawson
Exeter_POW_6[1]
The Exeter War Memorial. This quite magnificent war memorial stands in Northernhay Gardens opposite the ancient ruin of Rougemont Castle. Atop a pedestal of Devon granite stands a bronze figure representing "Peace" and beneath her a slain dragon. A further four bronze figures sit below "Peace". One features a soldier wearing shrapnel helmet, overcoat and gas mask with rifle slung over his soldier and another a V.A.D. Nurse in uniform. The figure facing the City Wall is a sailor sitting astride the prow of a ship and the remaining figure, as shown here, is of a Prisoner of War (Lady Owen, the wife of Sir James Owen the then Mayor of Exeter had led a team of Exeter men and women in organising relief work for soldiers held prisoner in Germany). John Angel, the sculptor of the Exeter memorial exhibited the figure of "Peace" at The Royal Academy in 1922. The Exeter War Memorial was completed in 1923.
It is perhaps a pity for British sculpture that John Angel was to emigrate to the United States of America early in his career but we can at least appreciate his work from the war memorials at Exeter and at Bridgewater.
He was born in Newton Abbot in Devon in 1881 and in 1901 he was apprenticed to a wood carver before attending Exeter’s School of Art. From there he went to the Lambeth School of Art and then the Royal Academy School where he studied under George Frampton. Angel showed great promise and in 1919 and before he was 30 years old he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.
Angel made his home in London and married an American, Elizabeth Day Seymour. They had two children and the Angel family finally emigrated in 1928.
He died on the 16th October 1960 in Connecticut and was then regarded as one of America’s foremost sculptors. His work for the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York and his statue of Francis Vigo for the George Rogers Clark Memorial Park in Vincennes , Indiana, overlooking the Wabash River, are just two of many works in America.
Exeter_POW_6[1]
The Exeter War Memorial. This quite magnificent war memorial stands in Northernhay Gardens opposite the ancient ruin of Rougemont Castle. Atop a pedestal of Devon granite stands a bronze figure representing "Peace" and beneath her a slain dragon. A further four bronze figures sit below "Peace". One features a soldier wearing shrapnel helmet, overcoat and gas mask with rifle slung over his soldier and another a V.A.D. Nurse in uniform. The figure facing the City Wall is a sailor sitting astride the prow of a ship and the remaining figure, as shown here, is of a Prisoner of War (Lady Owen, the wife of Sir James Owen the then Mayor of Exeter had led a team of Exeter men and women in organising relief work for soldiers held prisoner in Germany). John Angel, the sculptor of the Exeter memorial exhibited the figure of "Peace" at The Royal Academy in 1922. The Exeter War Memorial was completed in 1923.
It is perhaps a pity for British sculpture that John Angel was to emigrate to the United States of America early in his career but we can at least appreciate his work from the war memorials at Exeter and at Bridgewater.
He was born in Newton Abbot in Devon in 1881 and in 1901 he was apprenticed to a wood carver before attending Exeter’s School of Art. From there he went to the Lambeth School of Art and then the Royal Academy School where he studied under George Frampton. Angel showed great promise and in 1919 and before he was 30 years old he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.
Angel made his home in London and married an American, Elizabeth Day Seymour. They had two children and the Angel family finally emigrated in 1928.
He died on the 16th October 1960 in Connecticut and was then regarded as one of America’s foremost sculptors. His work for the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York and his statue of Francis Vigo for the George Rogers Clark Memorial Park in Vincennes , Indiana, overlooking the Wabash River, are just two of many works in America.