September 1st, 2025A rather statuesque fellow
Trentham’s Stanley James Hammond was born on August 1, 1913 at Blue Mountain, near Trentham to Andrew Edwin Hammond and Mary Ellen Plant. He was the first of six children.
Trentham’s Stanley James Hammond was born on August 1, 1913 at Blue Mountain, near Trentham to Andrew Edwin Hammond and Mary Ellen Plant. He was the first of six children.
He attended Trentham Primary School from 1919 to 1926 followed by the Daylesford Technical School where his academic achievements were rewarded with a studentship to study sculpture at the Working Men’s College Melbourne .
This college was later known by two additional names – the Melbourne Technical College and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
After graduating, Stanley worked as an assistant to Orlando Dutton between 1930 and 1932 and then worked with Paul Montford from 1933 to 1936. with both these sculptors specialising in the unique skill of bronze sculptures.
In 1935, Stanley entered and won a design competition for a Pioneer Miners’ memorial at Stawell. The following year he went into private practice in South Yarra and worked part-time from his studio. He was also a part-time lecturer at Melbourne Technical College and taught sculpture from 1936 to 1960 (excepting the years of 1942-1946 when he went to war and served his country).
The Victorian Artists Society website states: ‘After WWII Hammond worked with George Allen, a war artist in WWII and head of RMIT’s sculpture department, on the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance’s development. He worked with Allen on the bluestone Fallen Warrior and a three-metre freestone sculpture for the Russell Street Telephone Exchange. He was president of the VAS for five terms, a council member for 38 years and honoured with a Society Fellowship.’
Stanley was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Coronation Medal in 1952. He was also honoured in 1953 with the inauguration of the Stanley Hammond sculpture prize which was organised by VAS and gave young sculptors and students of art, the opportunity to submit work for an annual exhibition.
Stanley made bronze and stone works for many public spaces. In 1974, he was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to sculpture and the arts.
He was responsible for two of the Hepburn Shire’s monuments.
The first: the Dr Gweneth Wisewould Clock in Trentham, erected in 1973 with a plaque that reads: ‘In memory of Dr Gweneth Wisewould 1891 – 1972 Trentham District doctor 1938 – 1972 Erected by a grateful public. Stanley Hammond Sculptor 1973.’
The second: From School, erected in Daylesford outside The Daylesford Royal Hotel, and likely based on the C.J. Dennis poem Going to School, which describes the children and the horse in the bronze sculpture. Many visitors mistakenly think the sculpture is related to the story of the three lost children.
Did you see them pass to-day, Billy, Kate and Robin,
All astride upon the back of old grey Dobbin?
Jigging, jogging off to school, down the dusty track-
What must Dobbin think of it – three upon his back?
Robin at the bridle-rein, in the middle Kate,
Billy holding on behind, his legs out straight.
Other notable works in Victoria include six bronze panels at the entrance to Albert Park Reserve, the Sir Walter Scott bust of the author at Ballarat’s Civic Centre, and a set of four gargoyles cast in aluminium for Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo.
His interstate and overseas works are plentiful and include Soldiers of the Great War, a series of heads for the Australian War Memorial, Canberra and Australian Soldier, for the Australian War Memorial at Mont St Quentin in Somme, France, a replacement for the original by Charles Web Gilbert which was destroyed by German troops in 1940.
Stanley Hammond died on February 1, 2000 and his lasting legacy of bronze sculpture is on show for all to admire.
Below: Title: Stanley Hammond MBE, Artist: Irene Hill, 1977, Oil, Currently held in the VAS Collection
Words: Natalie Poole
