Thomas J Clapperton

Thomas J Clapperton FRBS (1879–1962) was a Scottish sculptor, famous for the statue of Robert the Bruce at the entrance of Edinburgh Castle erected in 1929.

He was born on 14 October 1879 in Galashiels, Selkirkshire in the Scottish Borders the son of a photographer.

He studied at the Galashiels Mechanics Institute, then Glasgow School of Art from 1899 to 1901, then the Kennington School of Art in London and then the Royal Academy Schools in 1904-5. In the latter he was student assistant to Sir William Goscombe John. After further studies in Paris and Rome, he set up studios at Chelsea and St. John's Wood, London, as a sculptor.

Although commissioned to design a monument to Mungo Park in Selkirk this was ultimately executed by the more experienced Andrew Currie. In the First World War he served in India.

Unlike the large group war memorials of Sir William Goscombe John, under whom Clapperton had studied at the Royal Academy, Clapperton's works are often of individual or equestrian figures.

In collaboration with C L J Doman, he produced in 1926 the colossal frieze representing Britannia with the Wealth of East and West on the front of Liberty's department store, Regent Street, London. His work overseas includes a war memorial in New Zealand, sculpture in Canada and a fountain in California.

He died in Upper Beeding in Sussex.

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