Early 20th Century Bronze Bust of Field Marshal Sir John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, by Sydney March, signed

Field Marshal Sir John French, 1st Earl of Ypres (1857-1925)

John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, K.P., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G., A.D.C., P.C., began his career as a midshipman in the Royal Navy before transferring to the 8th (King’s Royal Irish) Hussars in 1874. His sister was Charlotte Despard a suffragette and member of Sinn Fein who was highly critical of him all his life. French took part in the Sudan expedition, 1884-1885, and was in command of the 1st Cavalry Brigade on the outbreak of the Boer War, 1899-1902, during which he commanded troops in the relief of Kimberley and featured prominently in the subsequent Battle of Paardeburg. He was Commander-in-Chief for Aldershot Command, 1901-1907, after which he was promoted to full general and made Inspector-General of the Army, 1907-1912. In 1911 he was made an A.D.C. General to George V. From March 1912 to April 1914, he served as Chief of the Imperial; General Staff but resigned following the Curragh Mutiny and was made again Inspector-General of the Army. In August 1914 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). A man of hot temper, he disagreed with Lord Kitchener over sending the B.E.F. to Amiens but was forced to re-organise his thinking after the battles at Mons and Le Cateau before successfully directing the counter-offensive at the First Battle of the Marne. French remained in command in France as the major trenching began and the following year oversaw fighting at Neuve Chapelle and in the Ypres Salient. After the failures at Aubers Ridge and Loos, British offensive operations were almost halted. In December 1915, French was succeeded by General Sir Douglas Haig.

French returned to England to be appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces and in this capacity oversaw the suppression of the Irish uprising in 1916. In January of that year, he was created Viscount French of Ypres and of High Lake in the County of Roscommon. In December 1919, an eleven-man I.R.A. cell planned to assassinate Lord French, head of the Dublin Castle administration in Ireland. An ambush was organised as he returned from a private party which he had hosted the previous evening at his country residence, Frenchpark in County. Roscommon. The I.R.A. unit struck with grenades and concentrated rifle fire as French left Ashtown Station for the Vice-Regal Lodge in Phoenix Park, Dublin. Unbeknown to his attackers French was travelling in the first car of a three part convoy and was able to break away through the assassins’ road block unharme.

 Lord French was President of Ypres League, a veterans association for those who served at the Ypres Salient during the Great War. He retired from the Army in April 1921, and in May 1922 he was elevated to the Earldom of Ypres.

 Sydney March (1875-1968)

March was born in a Yorkshire and in 1901-02 moved with his brothers and sister to Kent where they established a unique sculpture studio in which each of the siblings specialized in a different area of modelling, carving and bronze casting. The studio and foundry was located at ‘Goddendene', Locksbottom, Farnborough, where Walter (1888-1954) supervised technicalities of casting and carving; Dudley (1885-1962) was responsible for the finishing; while Sydney, Vernon (1891-1930) and Elsie (1883-1974) were the main sculptors.

 Sydney March’s work was also cast by the silversmiths and bronze art founders Elkington & Co. This output included high quality standing bronze figures (approximately 14 ins high) of R.S.S. Baden-Powell as the Defender of Mafeking during the Boer War (1899-1902), and Kitchener of Khartoum, conqueror of the Sudan (1896-98). A bronze casting of March’s bust of the imperialist Cecil Rhodes is in the National Portrait Gallery. Sydney’s work for Elkington also included a memorial bust edition of Queen Victoria and a coronation bust of Edward VII. Elkington also cast March’s over life size bust of George V for the Cardiff Royal Exchange. His magnificent full-length statue of Colonel Samuel Bevington, Mayor of Bermondsey, stands in Tooley Street where it was erected in the sculptor's presence in 1911. His other public works included an equestriam statue of Lord Kitchener for Calcutta and the United Empire Loyalists Monument at Hamilton which was unveiled on Empire Day (23rd May) 1929. Sydney and his siblings also worked in Canada on the completion of the National War Memorial at Ottawa after the unexpected death of Vernon from pneumonia in 1930.

In the early months of the First World War Sydney produced bust of Ferdinand Foch who as commander of the French 9th Army who stopped the initial German advance before the counter attack on the Marne. In similar vein Sydney produced his bust of Field Marshal Sir John French, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force from August 1914 to December 1915. After the war the Marches along with many contemporary British sculptors were engaged in the production of war memorials. Sydney’s best known design is that of the Bromley memorial which takes the form of an obelisk with three figures at the base representing Liberty, Victory, and Peace.