Frank Victor Blundstone was a Swiss-born English sculptor.

Career

Blundstone studied Art at Ashton-under-Lyne and then at South London Technical Art School before entering the Royal Academy Schools. There his awards included the Landseer Scholarship.

After the Great War he executed several war memorials including that at Folkestone. The Folkestone War Memorial would have been regarded as an important commission given Folkestone’s importance in the Great War and the Harbour Station would have been familiar to the millions of soldiers who passed through it in the Great War. It was the last part of England many enlisted men would have seen when going out to the Front and the first when coming home on leave. The Boulogne-Folkestone crossing was the usual Channel crossing point for soldiers during most of the war.

A recently taken photograph of the Folkestone War Memorial is shown here. It stands in The Leas area of Folkestone and was unveiled on the 1st December 1922 by the Earl of Radnor. A figure representing ”Motherhood” holds aloft a victory laurel and in the other hand holds a shaft to which is attached a cross and flag at half mast. The inscription reads

“TO OUR GLORIOUS DEAD/MAY THESE/DEEDS BE/HELD IN/REVERENCE”

Apart from the Samuel Plimsoll

Samuel Plimsoll

Samuel Plimsoll was a British politician and social reformer, now best remembered for having devised the Plimsoll line .-Early life:Plimsoll was born in Bristol and soon moved to Whiteley Wood...

Memorial and other works covered in The National Archive article (see link below), Blundstone also sculpted a Wendy Memorial for Hawera in New Zealand.

External links

• http://www.kentfallen.com/PDF%20REPORTS/FOLKESTONE%20HARBOUR%20STATION.pdf An informative article on Folkestone’s role in The Great War]
• http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Ferdinand_Victor_Blundstone%2C_Sculptor_%281882-1951%29 An article on Blundstone on The National Archives website.