War Memorial
© the copyright holders. Image credit: Janet Broughton / Art UK

War Memorial 1928 & 1932

Arthur John Hope (1875–1960) and Walter Marsden (1882–1969) and A. B. Burton (active 1874–1939)

Figure and portrait sculptor, and teacher, born in Church Kirk, Lancashire, who studied at Manchester School of Art and in the sculpture department of the Royal College of Art, under Édouard Lantéri. He admired Ancient Egyptian sculpture and the work of Rodin. Marsden met Hilda, his future wife, who became his assistant, at the Royal College, their daughter being the painter Stella Marsden. Walter taught at Hammersmith and St Martin’s Schools of Art. During World War I he was taken prisoner and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar, during the Second War being employed on camouflage. He was elected RBS. Marsden showed frequently at the RA (from 1966 being in receipt of the Turner annuity as an “artist of reputation” but not a member of the Academy), also at Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)

Artworks by Walter Marsden

  • War Memorial
    War Memorial Arthur John Hope (1875–1960) and Walter Marsden (1882–1969) and A. B. Burton (active 1874–1939)
  • St Anne's-on-the-Sea War Memorial
    St Anne's-on-the-Sea War Memorial Walter Marsden (1882–1969) and Thomas Smith Tait (1882–1954) and Morris Singer Art Foundry Ltd (founded 1927)
  • Maquette for the St Anne's-on-the-Sea War Memorial
    Maquette for the St Anne's-on-the-Sea War Memorial Walter Marsden (1882–1969)
    IWM (Imperial War Museums)
  • War Memorial
    War Memorial Walter Marsden (1882–1969)
  • Heywood War Memorial 
    Heywood War Memorial  Walter Marsden (1882–1969)
  • King Albert of the Belgians (1875–1934)
    King Albert of the Belgians (1875–1934) Walter Marsden (1882–1969)
    IWM (Imperial War Museums)
  • Maquette of T. E. Lawrence (1885–1935)
    Maquette of T. E. Lawrence (1885–1935) Walter Marsden (1882–1969)
    IWM (Imperial War Museums)
  • 3 more

Find out more

Walter Marsden was born in at Church near Accrington, Lancashire, England on 26 September 1882 and studied at Accrington School of Art; Manchester School of Art in c.1908; and in London at Central School of Arts and Crafts, and at the Royal College of Art, where he was taught by Édouard Lantéri (1848-1917) and was awarded a travelling scholarship to visit Italy.

At the Royal College of Art that he met his future wife Hilda Beatrice Hoare (1893-1988) who was to become his assistant. During World War One, which interrupted his art training, Marsden joined the Artists' Rifles later serving as a junior officer in the 1/5th Battalion Loyal Regiment. He was taken prisoner at Cambrai and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar at the Third Battle of Ypres in September 1917. During World War Two he served in the Camouflage Unit.

Marsden exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Royal British Society of Sculptors in London; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Manchester Academy of Fine Arts; and at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (ARBS) in 1926 and a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (FRBS) in 1961. Marsden was also elected a member of the Art Workers' Guild in 1930.

Deeply affected by both wars, his artistic aims were to express his sorrow at the waste of human life and thus worked on many war memorials. These included monuments located in St Anne’s on Sea, Bolton, Heywood, Church and Tottington all in Lancashire, Bude, Cornwall, and panels depicting wounded men being led from the battlefield which is located on the pulpit at the White Church, Fairhaven, Lytham St Annes.

Walter Marsden taught at Hammersmith School of Art and, from 1944 to 1952, at St. Martin's School of Art in London.

He died in August 1969. The Imperial War Museum possesses examples. His daughter was the painter Stella Marsden (1921-2009).

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