The Artillery Subaltern Maquette

This 19-inch bronze maquette — a small-scale model made in preparation for a larger work — represents The Artillery Subaltern, one of the four figures featured on the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner. Sculpted by Charles Sargeant Jagger, the memorial was unveiled in 1925 to commemorate the 49,076 Royal Artillery personnel killed in the First World War. The subaltern figure stands at the southern end of the monument and was developed from this original model.

Born near Rotherham in 1885, Jagger began a silver-engraving apprenticeship at the age of fourteen while studying art part-time. In 1903, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art to study sculpture. After graduating, he secured a further scholarship to the British School in Rome, which he gave up at the outbreak of war in 1914. He enlisted with the Artists’ Rifles and was later commissioned into the Worcester Regiment.

Awarded the Military Cross for gallantry, he was shot through the shoulder at Gallipoli, later gassed in the trenches, and wounded again in Flanders. In the final months of the war, he was appointed an Official War Artist by the Ministry of Information.

With his first-hand experience of war and the stark realism of his work, Jagger was approached by the Royal Artillery War Commemoration Fund Committee to submit a design for their memorial, after they had rejected proposals from several other sculptors. The Committee, formed in 1918 to oversee the Regiment’s commemorations, was made up of 55 members from all ranks, from Gunner to General. Jagger was given a clear brief: to produce “a sculptured group in bronze on a suitable pedestal, such as will be unmistakably recognisable as an Artillery memorial to any Gunner or layman of ordinary intelligence.”

His design was unanimously approved, although he later made several changes — enlarging the work by a third and adding two additional bronze figures, including an effigy of a dead soldier. This provoked some opposition, but Jagger believed that a memorial should convey the horror and terror of war. He felt so strongly that he offered to pay for the casting of the model himself. Reflecting on his decision, he later remarked: “The experience in the trenches persuaded me of the necessity for frankness and truth.”

The final memorial consists of a platform and pedestal surmounted by a sculptured representation of a 9.2-inch BL Howitzer. At the southern end stands the figure of an Artillery subaltern and on the east and west sides, respectively, are figures of a Gunner carrying 18-pounder ammunition and a Driver sheltering in a waterproof sheet. At the northern end, over the spot where copies of the Roll of Honour and the Royal Artillery War Commemoration Book have been deposited, is the figure of a dead artilleryman, covered with his greatcoat and steel helmet. Bas-reliefs depicting various branches of the Royal Artillery in action are carved on the four sides of the pedestal.

The initial reaction to the memorial was mixed, with some believing it was too graphic and lacked any symbolism of peace. However, Jagger was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Sculptors for his work, and the memorial was well-received by the Regiment and by veterans at large.

In 1949, three bronze panels were added in memory of the 30,000 Gunners who were killed in World War II.

Now Grade I listed, the memorial is internationally recognised as one of the finest of its kind. Its official designation praises its “combination of sculptural force, boldness of conception, vivid narrative and humanity,” describing it as “pre-eminent.”