William Kellock Brown

William Kellock Brown (15 December 1856 – 20 February 1934 Glasgow) was a Scottish sculptor prominent in late Victorian Glasgow, with many public works. His brother was the landscape artist Alexander Kellock Brown. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and Royal Scottish Academy. His sculptures are frequently simply initialled WKB. He was commissioned to create several Scottish war memorials in the early 1920s. He received an important commission from Glasgow Corporation in 1905–06, adding ornament to several public libraries in the city.

Life

He was born on 15 December 1856 (some sources state 1859) the son of an art metal worker. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1867 and later under Édouard Lantéri at the Royal College of Art in London. He taught sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art from 1887 to 1894, immediately prior to its relocation to the building by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. His pupils included Albert Hodge, John P Main and James H Mackinnon.

In 1898 John Lavery nominated him as a member in the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He was also a member of the Art Workers Guild (1892–1911).

He died of a heart attack in 1934 in Cambridge Street, Glasgow. He was working on a colossal statue of Robert Burns at the time of his death.

Principal works and commissions

• Ornamental ironwork on the Savoy Hotel in London (1888)
• Statue of Robert Burns as "The Thresher", Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow (1890)
• Monumental figures on J J Burnet’s New Athenaeum, 179 Buchanan Street, Glasgow (1892)
• John Watson Memorial Fountain, Hamilton (1893)
• Monumental figures on the Sanitary Chambers, Montrose Street, Glasgow (1895)
• Monument to Rev Dr George Stewart Burns, Glasgow Cathedral (1896)
• Monumental figures on the People's Palace, Glasgow (1898)
• Statue of Flora MacDonald (1898)
• Monumental figures on the Castle Chambers, 59–69 Renfield Street, Glasgow (1900)
• Sculpture on Woodside District Library, Glasgow (1905)
• Sculpture on Govanhill District Library, Glasgow (1906)
• Sculpture on Bridgeton District Library, Glasgow (1906)
• Sculpture on Dennistoun District Library, Glasgow (1906)
• Portrait statuette of Cameron of Lochiel (1911)
• Cenotaph to John Robertson, Glasgow Necropolis (1912)
• The Titanic Disaster Memorial, in the former Institute of Engineers and Shipbuilders, Elmbank Crescent, Glasgow (1913)
• The Livingstone Memorial at Blantyre (now the David Livingstone Centre) (1913)

• Sketch model of Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts (1915)
• Memorial to Thomas Carlyle in Kelvingrove Park (strongly influenced by Auguste Rodin) (1916)
• Statue of General Maximo Gomez, Liberator of Cuba (1919)
• Penpont War Memorial (1920)
• Monument to Thomas Millar, Glasgow Necropolis (1922)
• Inverary War Memorial (1922)
• Largs War Memorial (1922)
• Johnstone War Memorial (1924)