Woolner, Thomas

(1825-1892)

   Born at Hadleigh, Suffolk, he studied under the sculptor William Behnes from the age of twelve, and in 1842, he entered the schools of the Royal Academy, continuing to be employed by Behnes in his spare time. His first work, Eleanor Sucking the Poison from the Arm of Prince Edward, was exhibited in 1843. He went on to become a sculptor of world renown and was a member of the Pre-Raphaelites. The struggling woolner sailed for Melbourne, Australia, in 1852 to seek his fortune in gold, but re424 turned two years later not much better off. The turning point was his execution of the bust of Tennyson (1857); from then on, commissions rolled in. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1871 and academician in 1874. He died suddenly and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary's, Hendon. Some of his poetry publications: My Beautiful Lady, 1863 (third edition 1866). Pygmalion, 1881. Silenus, 1884. Tiresias, 1886. Children, 1887. My Beautiful Lady, 1887 (in 3 parts, 17 cantos in all; issued in 1887 as volume 82 of Cassell's National Library).

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Love in Verse. Kathleen Blease, ed. Ballantine Publishing Group, 1998. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.