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'Charles Sargeant Jagger' MC (1885-1934) was a British sculptor who, following active service in the First World War, sculpted many works on the theme of war. He is best known for his war memorials, especially the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner and the Great Western Railway War Memorial in Paddington Railway Station, both of which are in London, and he also designed several other monuments around Britain and other parts of the world.

Contents

Biography

Military service

Work as a sculptor

Selected works

London, United Kingdom

Elsewhere in the United Kingdom

Worldwide

Image gallery

References

Further reading

External links

Biography

Charles Jagger was born in Kilnhurst, Yorkshire in 1885. He was the son of a colliery manager, and was educated at Sheffield Grammar School. At the age of 14 he became an apprentice metal engraver with the Sheffield firm Mappin and Webb.
He studied at the Sheffield School of Art before moving to London to study sculpture at the Royal College of Art (1908–11) under Edouard Lanteri. His early works dealt with classical and literary themes and were influenced by the New Sculpture movement in the focus on medievalism and on surface qualities. Jagger, Charles Sargeant 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 the Prix de Rome. Jagger, (Charles) Sargeant

Military service

When war broke out in 1914, Jagger gave up the Prix de Rome to join the army. At first, Jagger joined the Artists' Rifles, and in 1915 he was commissioned in the Worcestershire Regiment. Jagger served in Gallipoli and on the Western Front, and was wounded three times. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry.

Work as a sculptor

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 on ''No Man's Land'', a low relief which is today is part of the Tate Collection. No Man's Land 1919-20 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.

His Royal Artillery Memorial (1925) at Hyde Park Corner in London is one of his best-known works. It features a giant sculpture of a howitzer surrounded by four bronze soldiers and bronze relief scenes, and is dedicated to casualties in the British Royal Regiment of Artillery in World War I.
Jagger was made an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1926.
After the demand for war memorials had subsided, Jagger continued to receive important commissions and his works were increasingly influenced by Art 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 architect Edwin Lutyens to design a sculpture of Christ the King for the designs for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. The sculpture did not meet with the approval of the cathedral authorities and was never executed. A model of Lutyens' unrealised building is displayed in the Walker Art Gallery The Very Greatest Building that was never Built (sourced from Findarticles.com)Transcript of audio download of 'Lutyen's Cathedral' talk by Paul O'Keeffe.
Charles Jagger died in 1934.

Selected works

London, United Kingdom

★ '''No Man's Land''' [1] (1919–20) Tate Collection

★ 'The Great Western Railway War Memorial' ("a Soldier Reading a Letter", 1922) in Paddington Railway Station

★ 'The Royal Artillery Memorial' (1925) at Hyde Park Corner

★ Sculpture of 'Ernest Henry Shackleton,' Royal Geographical Society

★ Sculptured figures on 'Imperial Chemical House' (1928), Millbank

★ Sculptured figures on 'Thames House', Millbank

★ 'The Kelham Rood' (1929), originally Kelham Hall, Nottinghamshire, now in St John the Divine, Kennington

Elsewhere in the United Kingdom

★ '''Torfrida''' (c.1911), Clifton Park Museum, Rotherham

★ Statues of gunners at the 'Guildhall Square Cenotaph' [2] (1921), Portsmouth

★ Sculpture of a Sentry, 'Watts Warehouse' (now the Britannia Hotel) (1921), Manchester
A maquette of the Manchester Sentry can be seen at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

★ The 'Bedford War Memorial' (1921), Bedford

★ 'Hoylake and West Kirby War Memorial' [3] (1922), Hoylake, Merseyside

★ War Memorial in the 'Church of St Michael and All Angels' [4], Brimington, Derbyshire

★ Monument to 'Charles Pelham, Lord Worsley' in All Saints Church, Brocklesby, Lincolnshire

★ Sculpture of Christ the King for Lutyens' proposal for 'Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral' (not executed)

Worldwide

★ The 'Anglo-Belgian Memorial' (1923), Brussels, Belgium

★ The 'Nieuwpoort Memorial' [5], Nieuwpoort (1928), Belguim

★ The 'Cambrai Memorial' [6], Louverval Military Cemetery (1928), Cambrai, France

★ 'Port Tewfik Memorial' (1926, destroyed 1956), Suez Canal, Egypt

★ 'Shrine of Remembrance', Melbourne, Australia

Two of Jagger's sculptures, the "Wipers" figure from Hoylake and West Kirby and the "Driver" figure from the Royal Artillery Memorial, were re-cast and erected outside the Museum and State Library in Melbourne, Australia. They were transferred to the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance in 1998 The Driver and Wipers Memorial and stand in the Shrine Reserve.

Image gallery

References

Further reading

Penny, N "English Sculpture and the First World War" - ''Oxford Art Journal'' (November 1981) pp36-42
''Charles Sargeant Jagger: War and Peace Sculpture'' (exhibition catalogue, ed. Ann Compton; London, Imperial War Museum, 1985) ISBN 0901627313
Ann Compton, ''The Sculpture of Charles Sargeant Jagger'' (British Sculptors & Sculpture) ISBN 0853318646

External links

★ Great Western Railway War Memorial - York University Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History

★ Charles Sargeant Jagger. Sculptor (1885-1934) - extensive summary of works on the National Archives wiki

★ Brits Oorlogsmonument/Monument britannique - the Jagger's Brussels Monument (Flemish language)

★ ''No Man's Land'' in the Tate Collection (with biography)