Francis Derwent Wood Francis Derwent Wood RA ( 1871 – 1926 ) was a sculptor , born in Keswick , Cumberland , in England ' s Lake District . Biography . Early life . Wood studied in Germany and returned to London in 1887 to work under Edouard Lanteri and Sir Thomas Brock ; he taught at the Glasgow School of Art from 1897 through to 1905 and was professor of sculpture at the Royal College of Art from 1918 through to 1923 . He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1920 . He produced a good deal of architectural sculpture typical of the time , including four large roof figures for the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow , the British Linen Bank also in Glasgow , and the Britannic House in London for architect Sir Edwin Lutyens . Freestanding sculptures by him may also be seen in various galleries , such as his 1907 " Atalanta " ( Manchester Art Gallery , with a bronze cast of it now in Chelsea Embankment Gardens ) . World War One . When he was too old ( at 41 ) to enlist in the Army at the onset of World War I , Wood volunteered in the hospital wards and his exposure to the gruesome injuries inflicted by the new war ' s weapons eventually led him to open a special clinic : the Masks for Facial Disfigurement Department , located in the Third London General Hospital , Wandsworth . Instead of the rubber masks used conventionally , Wood constructed masks of thin metal , sculpted to match the portraits of the men in their pre - war normality , as did Mrs . Anna Coleman Ladd , of Pennsylvania , at a similar Paris clinic . Just as had been happening with soldiers operated upon with the recent advances in plastic surgery , Wood ' s masks provided each with a renewed self - confidence , even self - respect , though they often proved uncomfortable . Face wounds were known to be the most devastating . By hiding the wounds behind the mask , the young men were able to return to relationships with their families and friends . Each mask required many weeks of work on the part of Woods , and other surgeons who followed his lead . A plaster cast was taken of the subject ' s wounded face - but only after the wounds and subsequent surgeries had totally healed . The crude process was itself a trial . The plaster cast was used to make a squeeze of plastocene or clay . This disfigured bust was used as the foundation of all prosthetic restorative work , with the sculptor working to replace the missing components of the face with the shapes from the opposing side . The mask itself was made from a thin copper sheet - galvanized copper to facilitate painting after forming . Painting a realistic portrait onto the copper mask was as challenging as the sculpting : each was finished while the patient wore it , in order to most accurately match the tone of the flesh with the enamels . The ward stayed open only two years , from 1917 to 1919 . There is no record of the exact number of masks made , but it must have been several hundred : a tiny drop among the more than 20 , 000 wounded in the face . His earnest efforts may not have helped statistically , but they influenced the lives of those he helped dramatically . A team in England has begun researching both the techniques of Wood ' s and others , and the stories of the patients and their families in an effort named Project Façade , centered at The Gillies Archive , Queen Mary ' s Hospital in Sidcup . The archive is named for Sir Harold Delf Gillies , a pioneering reconstructive surgeon in England . Gillies ' seminal work was his text , " Plastic Surgery of the Face " . Post - war . He produced a representation of The Crucified Soldier called " Canada ' s Golgotha " in 1919 , which caused a diplomatic flap between the Canadian and German governments . His " Machine Gun Corps Memorial " at Hyde Park Corner was also controversial . Wood died in London in 1926 . He was fifty - five . His grave can be found at St Michael ' s Church , Amberly village , West Sussex England .