William Leslie Bowles
Born 26 February 1885
Died 21 February 1954
Active: 1920 - 1932
Country of birth and death: Australia
Sculptor
Born at Leichhardt, New South Wales. He studied carving and modelling at the Brisbane Technical College under Lewis J. Harvey. Then in 1910 won a scholarship to study in Britain. He worked there with several sculptors, including Bertram Mackennal, also attending night classes (possibly at the City and Guilds School and Royal Academy). During the First World War he enlisted in the 2nd/25th London Regiment, and then joined the Royal Tank Corps. After the war he worked and exhibited in England but then returned to Australia in 1924, settling in Prahran, Melbourne. However he retained links with the UK, for example through his membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He died at his home and studio at Frankston, Melbourne.
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
The Alien
1920 (Presumed)
£30
Locations
Address 28 Abbey Gardens St. John's Wood London | View on map
1920
c/o F.V. Blundstone
Studio located at 5 St John's Wood Studios Queen's Terrace London | View on map
1911
Studio located at 3 Radnor Studios Radnor Street London SW3 | View on map
1920 - 1923
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The Seventy-Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Royal West of England Academy, 1920
1920
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1920 - 1923
Exhibited twice, one work each year ('The Alien', statuette, cat. no. 1349, in 1920; and 'Herbert J. Cawood Esq.', head, cat. no. 1476, in 1923).
Institutional and Business Connections
Associate member of Royal Society of British Sculptors
March 1926 - 1932
Note that in 1926, the R.B.S. 'Annual Report' records that Bowles, who was elected in March, 'has gone to Australia and has not yet taken up his Membership'.
Resigned in 1932.
Descriptions of Practice
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911
'Sculptor' and worker making sculpture
Sources
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
2006
Nancy D. H. Underhill, 'Bowles, William Leslie (1885 - 1954)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, p. 363 (accessed 1 February 2010)
Catalogue for the Seventy-Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Royal West of England Academy, 1920
1920
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911
2009
RG14PN583 RG78PN21 RD7 SD4 ED6 SN163
Citing this record
'William Leslie Bowles', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib1_1219783784, accessed 17 May 2022]
