An important bronze portrait bust of Prime Minister Winston Churchill by Barbara Tribe, F.R.S.B.S., (1913-2000)

Literature: Barbara Tribe, Sculptor, (2000), Patricia R. Macdonald, Sydney

 Whilst working for the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments in London during World War Two, Tribe was tasked with several of her colleagues to record the interiors of 10 Downing Street, in case of damage or destruction by enemy bombing. When cataloguing in the prime minister’s office, Churchill returned unexpectedly, and furious at their presence, ‘rudely ejected’ the inspection team. Tribe marked the encounter with production of a small plaster portrait bust cast from a working clay model. She offered the original plaster to Clementine Churchill’s Red Cross Aid for Russia Fund and the gift was accepted. In company with J. Seymour Lindsay, a colleague from the Inspectorate and a noted authority on English domestic metalwork, she delivered it in person to the prime minister’s official country residence, Chequers, in Buckinghamshire.