Born in Horbury, Yorkshire, Ruddock was based in Lambeth by 1851, working firstly as a stone carver and then as a sculptor. He exhibited 34 works at the RA between 1856 and 1892, mostly religious, but with some ideal subjects. In 1862, he was awarded first prize in the carved stone panels section at the annual meeting to distribute prizes to ‘art-workmen’ at the Architectural Museum, South Kensington. By 1901, he was blind and living with his son, Oliver, also a sculptor. He was buried in Norwood Cemetery on 6 February 1903. His works include the Last Supper reredos, Trinity church, Ossett, Yorks (RA 1864); roundel with high relief bust of Christ, St Stephen’s church, Copley, Yorks (RA 1866); reredos, St James church, Louth (RA 1872); Death of St Joseph, high relief, Sligo Cathedral (RA 1874); The Good Samaritan, a relief for ‘the lodge of Consumptive Hospital, Brompton’ (RA 1877), now Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney Street, Chelsea; and St Joseph with the infant Christ, Church of the Holy Name of Jesus, Manchester (RA 1879).
Sources: Art Journal, 1 April 1862, pp. 110–11; Mapping Sculpture; Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle, 1769–2018.
Terry Cavanagh November 2022
