William McDonald

Born 1887
Died 23 April 1932

Active: 1911 - 1932

Country of birth and death: Scotland

Bronze founder, teacher

Born in Kirkcudbrightshire. In 1911-12 McDonald set up a foundry with Charles d’Orville Pilkington Jackson. The premises at 20 Harrison Road, Edinburgh comprising a two-roomed office, studio and yard were originally built for a monumental sculptor. The partners had met at Edinburgh College of Art during Jackson’s Fellowship year. McDonald was determined to perfect the craft of cire perdue casting; Jackson described the process in great detail when their early pieces were produced.

Around 1914 McDonald took Charles Creswick (1883-1965), a silversmith designer from Birmingham and son of the sculptor Benjamin Creswick, into partnership at Harrison Road. Between 1914 and 1921 McDonald was listed as a teacher of bronze casting at Edinburgh College of Art, although from 1916 he served in the Royal Artillery and was badly wounded in the head. Creswick was also on active service based on a post card dated 13 April 1918 sent to his wife Nora (1883-1976) at 20 Harrison Road. McDonald never really recovered from his injuries, but nevertheless returned to the business.

In the 1920s, the business of McDonald & Creswick, Ltd., Bronzefounders (Cire Perdue) & Metal Workers flourished and set up a branch at 60 Gorgie Road, Edinburgh, 11, where Bowden, a draughtsman from the south, had joined the business. However, Jackson commented that Creswick, although able, was not a worker and the partnership finally dissolved.

On 23 April 1932 McDonald was found dead (aged 44) in a mill lade not far from his home in south west Edinburgh. Jackson believed he collapsed from his old war wound, but the official cause of death was recorded as ‘asphyxia by drowning’. Bowden took over the Gorgie Road branch. The company continued operating until about 1950 when it faded away, leaving Charles Creswick and his wife Nora, also a jewellery designer, in the Harrison Road premises.

This text was researched and written by Louise Boreham based on Pilkington Jackson’s memoirs, held in family; information from the late Frank Wilson; and McDonald’s death certificate accessed at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

Citing this record

'William McDonald', 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=msib6_1214836751, accessed 08 Jun 2023]