Alfred Turner (sculptor)

Alfred Turner RA (28 May 1874 – 18 March 1940) was an English sculptor notable for several large public monuments.

[1] These included statues of Queen Victoria, works in the Fishmonger's Hall in London and several war memorials, both in the Britiah Isles and abroad.

[2] He first studied at, what was then called, the South London Technical Art School in Lambeth at a time when William Silver Frith was the modelling master.

In 1902 this work, renamed Fisherwoman, with a companion piece, Fisherman, was placed in the staircase niches of Fishmonger's Hall in London.

[2][3] After the success of "Fishergirl", Turner secured commissions for three public monuments in bronze of Queen Victoria who died in January 1901.

The crown and the small statuettes representing "Justice" and "Peace", which were positioned on either side of the Queen's head were subsequently removed by vandals in 1905 when the statue was in India.

Turner also designed some metal grills for New Sessions House (leaf-like clouds, a sun burst and a nude infant crowned by child angels).

A plaster cast of "Dioscuri", the title of Turner's work, was shown in the forecourt of Burlington House in 1925 before the bronze was despatched to France and unveiled on 10 October 1926 by the widow of General Botha.

Two full-size bronze replicas went to South Africa in April 1928, one being erected in front of Capitol Buildings in Pretoria and the other in Cape Town.

In file TGA 8713.1.7 at Tate Britain Archive there is a copy of the unveiling ceremony programme of Sunday 10 October 1926.