William Scott Wilkinson (1886-1975) was a sculptor, born in Keighley.  He worked in bronze, marble, stone and plaster.

William was the son of a prominent local musician, music master and conductor of the same name. He was also uncle to  Doris Schrecker, another local artist.

He studied art first at Keighley School of Arts and Crafts, then at the Royal College of Art in London, but his career was interrupted when he served as a Second Lieutenant in the West Riding Regiment during WW1.

William won the Military Medal for his war service, and when the war ended William resumed his studies at the Royal College.  He exhibited statuettes at Royal Academy (RA) shows, his first in 1919, entitled ‘The Entombment’. Between 1919 and 1930 he had five other works accepted by the RA and worked on several sculptural commissions for war memorials in France and India.

He also assisted another sculptor, [Sir] Charles Wheeler, on external statuary commissions at the Bank of England, and worked as a modelling master at the Richmond School of Art.

 In 1942 William was an elected Associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (RSBS), and in 1949 was elected a Fellow of the RSBS. He was also an Associate Member of the Royal College of Art (ARCA).

Bradford Museums and Galleries have two sculptures by Wilkinson in the permanent collection, both at Cliffe Castle: a bust in bronzed terracotta of the Silsden artist, Augustus Spencer, commissioned after Spencer’s death in 1924; and a marble head of a girl, circa 1940s,  both shown below.

Bust of Augustus Spencer by William Scott Wilkinson. Image: courtesy of the Curator at Cliife Castle, Keighley.

Marble head of a girl. Image: by courtesy of Bradford Museums & Galleries, Cliffe Castle.