Joseph Herbert Morcom (1871–1942)
Joseph Herbert Morcom was born in Minera, near Wrexham, Wales on 31 May 1871 and, after working for as a stonemason, enrolled at Liverpool School of Architecture and Applied Art in the early 1890s. By 1904 he had been appointed assistant modelling master in the school's sculpture department. In 1905 he was elected a member of the Liverpool Academy and was awarded a ‘National Medal for Success in Art’ by the Board of Education, South Kensington. In the 1909 Eisteddfod Morcom won first prize in the sculpture section. In May 1910 he was appointed modelling master at Leicester School of Art. In that city, he also worked as an architectural sculptor and in 1914 bought out Pearson and Shipley, a firm of stonemasons and monumental sculptors.
Morcom married in 1915 and his final home was in Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire, in a house designed for him by Ralph Waldo Bedingfield (1872-1940) and decorated with carved stonework executed by The Plasmatic Company.
Morcom exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; the Royal Cambrian Academy in Conwy, Wales; the Royal Academy in London; and as a member of the Leicester Society of Artists, at the New Walk Museum & Art Gallery in Leicester. He also participated in the exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at the Royal Academy in London in 1916.
He died on 28 February 1942. At the time of his death, his address was given as 9 Gullet Lane, Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire.
Text source: Arts + Architecture Profiles from Art History Research net (AHRnet) https://www.arthistoryresearch.net/
