Kathleen Scott
Encyclopedia
Royal British Society of Sculptors
The Royal British Society of Sculptors is a registered charity whose aims are to promote and support sculpture. It has a worldwide membership....
(27 March 1878 – 25 July 1947) was a British sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
.
Early life
Born Edith Agnes Kathleen Bruce at Carlton in LindrickCarlton in Lindrick
Carlton in Lindrick is a village in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located 3 miles north of Worksop. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 5,818...
, Bassetlaw
Bassetlaw
Bassetlaw is the northernmost district of Nottinghamshire, England, with a population according to the 2001 UK census of 107,713. The borough is predominantly rural, with two towns: Worksop, site of the borough offices, and Retford...
, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
, she was the youngest of eleven children of Canon Lloyd Stuart Bruce (1829–1886) and Jane Skene (d. 1880).
She attended the Slade School of Fine Art
Slade School of Fine Art
The Slade School of Fine Art is a world-renownedart school in London, United Kingdom, and a department of University College London...
, London from 1900 to 1902, and then enrolled at the Académie Colarossi
Académie Colarossi
The Académie Colarossi is an art school founded by the Italian sculptor Filippo Colarossi. First located on the Île de la Cité, it moved in the 1870s to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France....
in Paris from 1902 to 1906 and was befriended by Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
.
Works
Three of Scott's bustBust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
s feature in the collection of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's National Portrait Gallery, and she is also the subject of thirteen photographic portraits there.
She sculpted at least two statues of her first husband, Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
, after his death. One of these
Scott Statue
The Scott Statue commemorates Robert Falcon Scott. It is located at the intersection of Oxford Terrace and Worcester Street in the Christchurch Central City, New Zealand. The statue, carved by Scott's widow Kathleen Scott, is registered as a Category II historic place...
is located in Christchurch
Christchurch Central City
Christchurch Central City is the geographical centre and the heart of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is defined as the area within the four avenues and thus includes the densely built up central city, some less dense surrounding areas of residential, educational and industrial usage, and green...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and another is in Waterloo Place, London. A plaque of Scott is on the exterior the Scott Polar Research Institute
Scott Polar Research Institute
The Scott Polar Research Institute is a centre for research into the polar regions and glaciology worldwide. It is a sub-department of the Department of Geography in the University of Cambridge, located on Lensfield Road in the south of Cambridge ....
in Cambridge with a statue of "Youth" (1920), for which the model was A.W. Lawrence
A.W. Lawrence
Arnold Walter Lawrence was a British authority on classical sculpture and architecture. He was Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cambridge University in the 1940s, and in the early 1950s in Accra he founded what later became the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board as well as the...
, younger brother of T. E. Lawrence
T. E. Lawrence
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO , known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18...
(better known as "Lawrence of Arabia").
She also sculpted a statue of Edward Smith, captain of the Titanic, after his death. This is situated in Beacon Park
Beacon Park
Beacon Park is a public park in the centre of the city of Lichfield, Staffordshire, in the United Kingdom. The park was originally laid out in 1859 in the form of the Museum Gardens adjacent to the newly built Free Museum and Library and has been extended over the years to its current size of...
, Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
A statue at Oundle School
Oundle School
Oundle School is a co-educational British public school located in the ancient market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire. The school has been maintained by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London since its foundation in 1556. Oundle has eight boys' houses, five girls' houses, a day...
entitled "Here Am I, Send Me" is erroneously held to be modelled on Peter Scott
Peter Scott
Sir Peter Markham Scott, CH, CBE, DSC and Bar, MID, FRS, FZS, was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer and sportsman....
.
Personal life
She married the Antarctic explorerExploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
Captain
Captain (Royal Navy)
Captain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...
Robert Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
, R.N.
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, on 2 September 1908, and a year later gave birth to their son Peter Scott
Peter Scott
Sir Peter Markham Scott, CH, CBE, DSC and Bar, MID, FRS, FZS, was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer and sportsman....
, who became famous in broadcasting, ornithology, painting, conservation and sport. In 1910, she accompanied her husband to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
to see him off on his journey to the South Pole
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
. A biographer of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In his youth a champion skier and ice skater, he led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, and won international fame after reaching a...
has suggested that, in her husband's absence, she began a brief affair with Nansen, the mentor of Scott's rival Amundsen
Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....
. In February 1913, while sailing back to New Zealand to greet Scott on his return, she learned of his death in Antarctica in March 1912.
In 1922, she married the politician Edward Hilton Young. Her second son, Wayland Hilton Young
Wayland Young
Wayland Hilton Young, 2nd Baron Kennet was a British writer Labour Party and SDP politician who served in numerous national and international official and unofficial capacities.-Early life:...
(1923–2009) was a writer and politician. Her grandchildren include Emily Young
Emily Young
Emily Young is a British sculptor. She is considered one of the foremost sculptors working in Britain today. She was born in London into a family of artists and writers...
, artist, and Louisa Young, writer.
Titles
In 1913, she was granted the rankUnited Kingdom order of precedence
The Order of precedence in the United Kingdom is the sequential hierarchy for nobility, clergy and holders of the various Orders of Chivalry in the constituent countries of the United Kingdom:* England and Wales* Scotland* Northern Ireland...
(but not the style) of a widow of a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
. This meant that, for the purposes of establishing official precedence, she was treated as if she were the widow of such a knight. However, she was not entitled to be called Lady Scott merely by virtue of this, and it did not amount to Captain Scott being posthumously knighted.
When her second husband was created Baron Kennet
Baron Kennet
Baron Kennet, of the Dene in the County of Wiltshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for the journalist and politician Sir Hilton Young. He was the youngest son of Sir George Young, 3rd Baronet, of Formosa Place. He was succeeded by his son, the second...
on 15 July 1935, she gained the title Baroness Kennet.
Further reading
- A Great Task of Happiness: The Life of Kathleen Scott, ISBN 0-333-57838-4 (1995) - Louisa Young
- A Father for my Son (biographical play, premiered 2000), - Jenny Coverack