An Ayrshire sculptor’s life works have come full circle - and have once again received a Royal seal of approval.
John McKenna, from Turnberry, shook hands with HRH The Princess Royal last week in Norton, Worcester, after being tasked with creating a life-size bronze version of a soldier to honour the men who served in the Worcestershire Regiment and the contributions they made in the two world wars.
Princess Anne, Patron of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association, unveiled a memorial plaque next to the statue on April 4, after her visit was rescheduled from last year following the death of her mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Hundreds lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the Princess Royal, as well as a special guest - the ceremonial regimental ram.
John, who is also the man behind the 40ft shipbuilders sculpture ‘The Skelpies’ near Port Glasgow, took pride of place next to his creation, which is inspired by a sculpture created by British sculptor and serviceman Charles Sargeant Jagger.
Standing at a near two metres high and weighing a whopping half tonne, ‘The Sentry’ memorial sculpture took John, who went to art school in Worcester, a year to make.
But John’s affiliation with the sculpture goes back some 40 years to his first day of art school when he was tasked with drawing something from the military museum next door - that drawing being a miniature version of Jagger’s statue.
John said: “It was the first drawing I ever drew at art school and I loved this sculpture, and because of that I became a sculptor.
“Forty years later, Dr. David James of the Norton Worcestershire Regiment Group said to me ‘oh we have this little statuette model in the basement here and we’re wondering if you could make a life-sized bronzed version of it.
“And I thought ‘I know what it is’, and I sent them a photograph of my drawing, because it’s still hanging on my wall here.
“And they said ‘yes, you’re the man for the job’.”
John got to work creating a life-size 6ft6 version of the drawing he sees every day, paying homage to the sculptor who inspired him to take up the craft.
He said: “Essentially it’s an homage to a sculptor who made me become a sculptor.
“It’s really close to my heart and it’s been a great thing for them to ask me to do it, especially because it was the first thing I did at art school.
“It all ties in in an amazing way because before Charles Sargeant Jagger was a sculptor he went off to the First World War.
“He was in the Worcestershire Regiment, and where the ‘The Sentry’ sculpture is is near Northern Barracks, which is now closed, but that was where the regiment was.
“And Princess Anne is the Patron of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters- so it all ties in.
“She was supposed to unveil it last year but on the day she was meant to unveil it, the Queen, her mother, had died the week before.
“She had said ‘please forgive me, I can’t come and do it’ because it was the funeral day- and obviously nobody in their right mind would’ve expected her to do it.”
John has brushed with royalty before as he previously met the late Queen Elizabeth II back in 2001, to whom he showed off his Jersey Cattle group bronze sculpture.
He is also the man behind the life-size sculpture of former AC/DC frontman Bon Scott, unveiled in the late rocker’s hometown of Kirriemuir.
