This year, the Royal Society of Sculptors marks 50 years at its home, Dora House, on Old Brompton Road. It is entirely due to the remarkable gift of the sculptor Cecil Thomas OBE FRBS who bequeathed us his home and studio in September 1976. Named after his much-loved wife, Dora, the building has been a studio for photographers, painters, architects and designers alike in its long history.
Cecil Thomas was a remarkable man. He was best known for his work in memorial sculpture as well as coin and medal design.
Born in 1885, aged 12 the vicar of his local church in Hammersmith encouraged him to sell his water colours at the church bazaar. By 15, he had joined his father’s seal engraving workshop in Soho, where he continued working while also studying at the Slade and Heatherley, before going on to become an independent professional engraver.
In 1909 he showed a case of four gems at the Royal Academy and he would go on to show in 27 more exhibitions there with the last being a self-portrait commemorative medal in 1974.
To relax he loved nothing more than punting on the Thames and was a devout Christian worshipping at St Bride’s in the city, and here, St Mary the Boltons in later life.
From 1914-1917 he served as an Intelligence Officer in the First World War. Based in Belgium, his main duties involved the production of detailed, three-dimensional maps and models of the local terrain.
In his autobiography Cecil describes being injured in the war and sent to hospital in Chelsea to recover – infected shrapnel was removed from under his heart. With his home in Camden destroyed, the matron of his ward was aware that he had nowhere to return to. She spotted the abandoned Dora House from the top deck of the bus that took her to and from work and told Cecil about it. He broke into the basement with a carving knife and determined that he should live there.
Explore Cecil's experience in the First World War in the documentary Cecil Thomas: Soldier Sculptor
Cecil moved in to Kensington House as it was then known in March 1919 with just his army kit bag – but there was drama to come in 1926 when his tenancy came to an end and he was given a limited time option to buy the freehold for £5,500 before the building went to auction. Of the day he secured Dora House, Cecil wrote: I went back to my studio – mine – with a real feeling that the date 1886 carved on the pediment – the year I was born had a real significance; and a stronger urge if possibly to do something more worthwhile.
In 1929, Cecil met Dora Pearson on a trip to Oberammagau to see the Passion Play. They married at All Hallows Church the following year with 250 guests squeezed into his studio for the reception. As he wrote, “A successful day”.
They were joined by son Anthony in May 1936, a mongrel poodle called Roy and “a very superior cat called Timoshenko”.
Cecil and Dora acquired the garden from their neighbour – an upholsterer – and he described the joy hydrangeas, dahlias, foxgloves and buddleahia brought them, as well as vast numbers of butterflies – “40 was our record” he writes.
“Many a midsummer night is remembered when the garden, full of flowers and fairy lights, was full of our favourite friends taking coffee and drinks with us … I sometimes got the illusion of being in an illuminated box of flowers but always contentment of the garden”.
With war on the horizon, the family moved to Flamstead near Hemel Hempstead where Dora ran the Mothers’ Union and Cecil took on the Flamstead Home Guard.
In 1945 a flying bomb landed in Gloucester Road which damaged the windows and crushed Cecil’s studio roof, smashing the glass – presumably why we have a plastic roof today. While the repairs were undertaken – paid for by the War Damage Insurance scheme - the family lived in the housekeeper’s quarters, otherwise known as the basement !
However, 1946 proved to be a better year: with the building repaired, Cecil sold a 10 year lease for 110 to Mrs Nicholson for her husband, Christopher Nicholson and his colleague, Hugh Casson, to run their architecture practice. Casson later wrote, “We loved the Dutch house (as we called it) and were very happy there.”
Cecil records a “studio full of work, my assistant Ernie Churchill returned to me, everything let to good tenants and we got one of the first peacetime cars to come out of the factory”.
He was also elected Master of the Art Workers Guild in 1946 (pictured above) and asked to join the Council of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.
In 1948 he designed a seal for the British Transport Commission, and in 1953 won the competition to design the new coinage to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, as well as receiving an OBE. The following year the Queen sat for Cecil so he could design a new set of postage stamps.
Among his later commissions were several large bronzes destined for New Zealand, including characters from the Peter Pan story for Dunedin Botanic Garden. The family album contains a photograph taken on 3 March 1966 – Cecil’s 81st birthday – on board the ship Victoria as he and Dora return from the unveilings in New Zealand.
But in 1967 Dora died. Cecil set up the Dora Charitable Trust in her memory, dedicated to the advancement of British sculpture, and in the early 1970’s provided a room in Dora House for use by the Society.
Diana Whelan MRSS recalls, I remember the AGM in 1975 or so when Cecil Thomas was thanked for donating Dora House to the Society. He was sitting in the hall surrounded by members, beaming happily and enjoying the buzz. I wasn't yet a member but a guest of my mother Marjorie Drawbell FRBS.
Explore Memories of Dora House shared by Society members on our blog
Cecil Thomas died at home on 16 September 1976 aged 91. It was said that he could carve a six-foot statue or an eighth of an inch likeness in a gem, but his greatest legacy is his gift of Dora House to the Society for which we owe an enormous debt of gratitude.
Cecil Thomas: Soldier Sculptor
Focused on the personal wartime experiences of Cecil Thomas OBE FRBS (1885-1976) whose papers, including his unpublished autobiography, are held in our archives.
