Sculptor and landscape painter, he was born in Comrie, Perthshire, and studied at Glasgow School of Art (1887–88), before joining the studio of George Frederick Watts in Compton, Surrey, where he assisted with the production of, among other works, Physical Energy (1883–1904). He later briefly assisted Pittendrigh Macgillivray on the Monument to W.E. Gladstone in Edinburgh. As an independent sculptor his most celebrated works are the small figures in both bronze and wood he contributed to various ecclesiastical schemes, such as the Thistle Chapel in St Giles Cathedral (1909–11), for Robert Lorimer, and the altar in the chapel at Mountstuart, Isle of Bute (1912), for Rowand Anderson.
Bibliography: W.T. Johnston, Dictionary of Scottish Artists (c.2000), Scottish National Library, ref CD-ROM.585; P.J.M. McEwan, The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture, Ballater, Aberdeenshire, 2004; R. McKenzie, Public Sculpture of Edinburgh (2 vols), Liverpool, 2018, vol. 1, pp. 222, 454, 463, vol. 2, pp. 55, 513.
Ray McKenzie 2018