Allan Gairdner Wyon [1882-1962]
English
Egyptian nude, 1917
Cast bronze
21-3/4 x 13-1/4 x 11 inches
Signed : ‘Allan G. Wyon SC 1917’.

This version of the sculpture does not include an Egyptian themed marble engraved plinth.

BIOGRAPHY

Allan Gairdner Wyon (1882-1962) was a English die-engraver, sculptor and ecclesiastical vicar most known for his figurative memorials and monuments. Wyon was born in 1882 to Allan Wyon FSA (1843–1907) and Harriet Gairdner. Allan was part of an artitic legacy decended from German silver chasers. His father, two of his uncles, his grandfather and his great-grandfather having held the position of Chief Engraver of Seals to the [English] monarch.

Wyon attended Highgate School and studied sculpture in London from 1905 to 1909 at the Royal Academy. From 1910 to 1911 he was an assistant sculptor to Sir Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925). This was also the year that Allan was appointed to the position of Chief Engraver of Seas to the monarch for George V. Between 1924 and 1930 he was Honorary Secretary of the Art Workers Guild. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors and also worked as a die-engraver, but took Holy Orders in 1933. From 1936 until his retirement in 1955, he was vicar of St. Peters Church, Newlyn.

He was the leader and first Grand Master of the Honorable Fraternity of Ancient Masonry, formed by a group of men and women who seceded from the Co-Masonic Movements. He is also the author of the book ‘Mysticism and the Creed’ 1914.

He married Eileen May Trench in 1910; they had one daughter. He had three sisters, Olive, and two others. One an Anglican Deaconess and the other a Congregational Minister.