Tombstone To Sir Percy Harris, Bart, St Nicholas Churchyard

787/0/10145 CHURCH STREET 28-FEB-03 Chiswick Tombstone to Sir Percy Harris, Bart, S t Nicholas Churchyard

GV II*

Monument to Sir Percy Harris, Bt., MP (d.1952). Funerary relief. Portland stone. By Bainbridge Copnall (d.1973). A tall rectangular relief on a stepped base bearing an inscription. The relief depicts the resurrection of the dead, and shows rising naked figures (some with 1920s bobbed hair) amid crosses in a cemetery; above hovers a winged angel. The reverse is plain. HISTORY: this was a youthful work by the prominent 20th century sculptor Bainbridge Copnall, and was carved in the late 1920s. It was acquired by Harris for display in his garden at Morton House, Chiswick Mall, and subsequently transferred to his grave. Symbolically it is indebted to the work of Stanley Spencer, and is of great interest as one of the very last funerary depictions of the Christian theme of the rising of the dead at the Last Judgment. Stylistically it is indebted to the Vorticist Wyndham Lewis. Harris was a prominent Liberal politician, sitting as an MP and serving as deputy leader of the London County Council. His book London and its Government (1913) was the standard work on metropolitan municipal government. Copnall served as President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors 1961-66 and is best known for his decorative carving in the Royal Institute of British Architects' building, opened in 1934. This is a monument of very high quality, and of historic, sculptural and symbolic interest.