page_title: Cecil Thomas (sculptor)
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: Cecil Thomas (sculptor) / Early career
caption_attribution_description: English: Southwark Cathedral: The memorial tomb of Bishop Edward Stuart Talbot
context_page_description: Cecil Walter Thomas, OBE FRBS, was a British sculptor and medallist. As a sculptor, he created many private memorials for display in churches and cemeteries and as a medallist was regularly commissioned by the Royal Mint.
context_section_description: Thomas was born in the Shepherd's Bush area of London to John Thomas, a seal engraver, and Alice Sophia Thomas (née Ings). As a teenager, Cecil became an apprentice in his father's practice and continued working for his father while studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, Heatherley School of Fine Art, and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In his early career, he specialised in gem engraving, receiving commissions from all over the world, including several from the House of Fabergé. Nonetheless, his work in creating  cameo portraits inspired his interest in medals and coins; he was one of the few artists to engrave directly into the die. Among his earliest works were a small medal in 1899 for Sesame house (now held by the British Museum), and a carnelian intaglio seal for London County Council and an intaglio portrait of Sir Henry Irving, both dating from 1905. He began accepting commissions on his own account by the time he was in his mid-twenties, and created several cast-bronze medals. His medal for the Surrey Rose Club (1909) attracted particular acclaim, which he followed with the Oxford millenary medal (1912), which exemplifies Thomas' interpretation of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
  Thomas was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, starting in 1909, and at the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, of which he became an associate in 1914 and a fellow the following year. He also exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in London, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Manchester City Gallery, the Salon in Paris, and at shows in the United States.
  During the First World War, Thomas joined the British Army, initially serving as a staff officer. He was observed by his superiors using sand models to demonstrate plans to his men and transferred to a military intelligence position. He was seriously wounded later in the war and returned to his medal-making during his recovery. After the war, he received a commissioned for a recumbent effigy from a lord and lady, in memory of their two sons. This resulted in many more commissions for funerary bronze effigies. Several are on display in churches including All Hallows-by-the-Tower in the City of London; Christ Church Cathedral in Newcastle, New South Wales; and Exbury Church in Hampshire. As well as private memorials, Thomas created effigies of multiple public figures, including Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Canterbury Cathedral; Bishop Edward Talbot in Southwark Cathedral; Admiral Philip Nelson-Ward at Boxgrove Priory church; and Reverend Prebendary Boyd in St Alban's Church, Teddington. He also designed a war memorials for the St John Ambulance Brigade  at St John's Gate, Clerkenwell. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (now the Royal British Society of Sculptors) in 1938.
  Thomas volunteered for the Royal Air Force at the outbreak the Second World War, serving in the model-making section at RAF Medmenham in Buckinghamshire, interpreting aerial photographs into terrain models. He was demobilised in 1945, having reached the age of 60.
caption: Thomas' effigy of Bishop Talbot in Southwark Cathedral
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