The war memorialist - Grave Story 116

Most New Zealanders have seen Richard Gross’s work, although they probably wouldn't know his name.
In fact, I walk past one nearly every day.
So, with protesters at Parliament occupying the land around the Wellington Cenotaph, which is designed to memorialise the brave men and women who fought for us, I wondered about the man who created its striking sculptures.

Turns out his works are all around New Zealand.

Richard Oliver Gross was born on January 10, 1882 in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England to engine-driver father George and his wife Emma.
He went to the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts where he studied under sculptor Albert Tofts.
Living in South Africa in his 20s, he worked as an architectural carver. He married Ethel Jane Bailey on July 25, 1912.
In 1914 they moved to New Zealand and turned to farming near Helensville. Gross became a director of the Kaipara Co-op Dairy Company.
But, a sculptor at heart, he moved to Auckland where he set up a studio in Newmarket. He designed the statue of a soldier for the Clive war memorial in Hawke’s Bay - a soldier standing with his gun in front of him. He did not however sculpt that one.
His first public sculpture was for a memorial in Cambridge in 1923 - a shirtless digger with sandbags at his feet.
Other commissions quickly followed in association with two Auckland architects William Gummer and Malcolm Draffin.
His work includes a male figure for the top of the Auckland Grammar School memorial, the lion at the base of the Dunedin Cenotaph, the fountain at the National War Memorial Carillon in Wellington, the delicate bronze frieze around the Havelock North memorial, the stone frieze around the Auckland war memorial museum.
In Wellington he created the equestrian figure for the top of the cenotaph - called the Will to Peace and two panels of a call to arms relief. It was used officially on Anzac Day in 1931 and dedicated on April 17, 1932.
It was after the Second World War he added the bronze lions on either side.
Gross was known for his beautiful anatomical form of men - often reaching up and his fondness for lions.
He was the first sculptor to build his own bronze foundry.
There is a marble memorial to Labour leader Harry Holland by Gross in the Bolton Street cemetery.
He also created a bronze Maori chief for the One Tree Hill memorial.
Gross received a number of honours for his work including a CMG, commander of the order of St Michael and St George.
Not content with being New Zealand’s premier sculpture he also painted watercolours and wrote poetry.
He and Ethel had three sons. Billie who died at aged 13, and Richard - called Dick -who died in active service in North Africa in 1942, which of course added a poignancy to his father’s memorials.
Richard and Ethel are buried at Matamata cemetery - with fittingly, a slab of polished granite with a bronze plaque with their sons names on it.
Picture from the Te Papa collection by Leslie Adkin in 1932.