Memorials in London: Charles Sargeant Jagger

I have probably been thinking too much about World War 1 recently, but I was glad, anyway, to see some war memorials on our walk in London at the weekend. We have a ridiculous number of memorials and plaques in London, but hey, it's an old place, and interesting if you have some knowledge of history.

Recently, on a programme about Great Lives, a sculptor called Martin Jennings (I wonder if he is related to the Jennings family of Ampleforth?) suggesting another sculptor called Charles Sargeant Jagger, who made a great sculpture in memoriam to the Royal Artillery after the war. It was "direct and honest about the horrors of war". There's an anonymity about the soldiers. He wanted to make a sculpture for the people like himself who had survived the war, and knew the truth of it. It was a new form of art.

 

 

Tens of thousands of people went to see the unveiling of the memorial after the war.

Platform 1 of Paddington station.

A soldier reading a letter from home.

Jagger's father apprenticed him as a silver engraver for Mappin and Webb. In the evenings he studied drawing and modelling.

Then the war started and Jagger went to fight in Gallipoli; it was a terrible, terrible experience. He spent two days digging a trench with his hands in very hard ground. His platoon sergeant was shot and died in his arms. He was wounded soon afterwards and shipped to Malta. He soon went back to the western front and fought until the end of the war.

Later, he could be very intolerant of those who had not contributed to the war effort.

He went back to sculpture immediately after the war, even though he had not been able to practise his art for all the years of the war. He produced one large sculpture every three months or so for about six years. (1919-25) Once he ceased to make war memorials his work became less interesting (according to Martin Jennings).

The design for this memorial had to be approved by various committees and by the King, because of course it changed Hyde Park corner, an important landmark.

Jagger was perhaps disappointed that he didn't get more letters of admiration. He had critics. Lord Curzon hated the Artillery memorial and called it a "hideous" and "a toad".

Jagger died at the age of 48. In the war he had been shot twice and gassed. His very hard work had perhaps weakened his lungs with dust, and he died of pneumonia.