Richard Gross (sculptor)

Richard Oliver Gross CMG (10 January 1882 – 27 December 1964) was a New Zealand farmer and sculptor.

Holland Monument at Bolton Street Memorial Park, a cemetery in Wellington, New Zealand

Life and career

He was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England, on 10 January 1882. He moved to New Zealand in 1914.^[1]

Gross sculpted the following works:

• The figure of Endeavour on the Auckland Grammar School war memorial, Auckland.
• The figure of Sacrifice on the Cambridge war memorial.
• The lion at the base of the Dunedin cenotaph.
• The fountain at the National War Memorial carillon, Wellington.
• The bronze frieze around the Havelock North memorial.
• The stone frieze on the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland.
• Elements on the Wellington cenotaph include the two panels of a call-to-arms relief and the equestrian figure on top, the 'Will to Peace'. After the Second World War, Gross added the bronze lions to the cenotaph.
• The Athlete and The Swan on the Domain gates, Auckland.
• The marble memorial to the Labour leader Harry Holland, in the Bolton Street cemetery, Wellington.
• The Davis Memorial Fountain at Mission Bay, Auckland.
• The bronze Maori chief for the One Tree Hill memorial, Auckland.
• The figure of love and justice for the memorial to Michael Joseph Savage at Bastion Point, Auckland.

Honours and awards

In the 1938 King's Birthday Honours, Gross was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, in recognition of his services as a sculptor.^[2] In 1953, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.^[3]