Cupid

Vernon March was born in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire. The family moved to London in about 1900. He was the youngest of a large family, seven of his siblings becoming artists, of which Sydney and Elsie were also sculptors. For most of their careers they lived and worked in a purpose built group of studios at the family home of Goddenden, near Farnborough in Kent. Vernon served with the Royal Flying Corps during the Great War and following the war was employed to produce several major international war memorials including his commission to make the World War I Cenotaph memorial for Cape Town and the Diamond War Memorial in Northern Ireland. In 1926 he won the competition to design the National War Memorial of Canada in Ottawa. The massive memorial included groups represented the eleven branches of the Canadian forces engaged in the First World War. Tragically Vernon died of pneumonia in 1930, before the scheme was completed, and it was then finished by members of his family. During his life he had also collaborated on various other memorials with member of his family, including those in Lewes and Sydenham. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts.