John William Drake

Born 10 March 1883
Died 1950

Active: 1891 - 1946

Country of birth and death: England

Sculptor, stone cutter, modeller

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire on 10th or 16th March 1883. He was the son of Alfred Drake, stone cutter and letterer who was born in Bradford on 2 August 1832. The family was also in farming; John William's uncle, John Thurman Drake (born on 26 June 1811) had about fifteen acres of land in 1861 and his father, Alfred, worked as a farmer as well as a stone cutter up to the early 1890s.

By 1901, John William had joined his father and older brother Samuel (born on 2 April 1872 in Bradford) in the stone carving business in Bradford. However, sometime over the next ten years Drake moved to London and began modelling in clay. He probably studied at South London Technical School of Art around 1910 as he received an invitation to the 'Kennington Students Bohemian Concert' that year. Drake exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915.

His business continued until the mid-1940s and, according to information passed down through his family, worked for Sir Edwin Lutyens on a number of projects, including carving decorative detailing on the Midland Bank, Piccadilly; the Cenotaph, Whitehall; and Queen Mary's dolls house. In 1945-6 Drake was commissioned to carve two memorials to the architect, one at Campion Hall, Oxford (a building by Lutyens) and the tablet in St Paul's Cathedral (designed by William Curtis Green RA) for which he was paid £180 by the Royal Academy. Drake also assisted Eric Broadbent in carving 'Speed Wings over the World' for the main entrance to the Imperial Airways Empire Terminal, Buckingham Palace Road, London, opened in 1939 (now the National Audit Office).

This record includes information provided by the artist's grandson, Frank Dumbleton.

Citing this record

'John William Drake', 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=msib4_1264762430, accessed 18 Jan 2022]