On Tuesday 4th April 2023 the dedication ceremony of the Sentry statue I created, was undertaken by HRH The Princess Royal, who is a Patron of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association.

Backstory……

Forty years ago I went to art school, the first day the tutors sent us students next door to the local Museum to draw an object. My drawing was of a model of a WW1 Sentry Soldier, a two foot high bronze soldier figure by a sculptor called Sargeant Charles Jagger. It was my first drawing at Art school, seen here in this post, I have kept it always, it is forty years old, it hangs on my wall, I see it every day.

Jagger was a British sculptor who, following active service in the First World War, sculpted many works. He is best known for his Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner and the Great Western Railway War Memorial in Paddington Railway Station, along with many others around the world.
Jagger’s work influenced my artistic technique and greatly inspired me to become a sculptor.

Thirty six years later a request came from the Worcestershire Regiment Project Group who were from Norton in Worcester, they wanted a life-size bronze statue version of Jagger’s Sentry maquette in the Worcester museum for a site near the former Norton barracks, Worcester. The statue was to be the final project of the Worcestershire Regiment Project Group, it is to be a permanent and lasting memorial life size statue of a soldier of the Worcestershire Regiment to remind those who live in the area and anyone passing through that an infantry regiment once lived here.

The former barracks at Norton, housed the Worcestershire regiment and during world war one Jagger served in the Worcestershire regiment. In 1915 he was commissioned into the Worcestershire Regiment. Jagger served in Gallipoli and on the Western Front, and was wounded three times. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry.

This Sentry statue is my homage to Sargeant Charles Jagger, who’s work influenced me into a creative life.