Saint Edmund statue

This mahogany wooden statue of Saint Edmund was carved by the sculptor David John and was commissioned for the Calne millennium celebrations in September 1955. The statue was purchased by Saint Edmund’s Parish and blessed and installed in the old church building, (the present church hall), on the Feast of Saint Edmund, 16th November 1955. The inscription on the rear of the statue reads: “Saint Edmund of Canterbury. DAJ. 1955”.

David John has worked professionally as a sculptor since 1951 and now lives in Gloucestershire.

Many fine examples of his art can be seen in churches in the London area, including a very large Portland Stone sculptural grouping, made in 1957, outside Saint Luke’s Catholic Church in Pinner of “Saint Luke painting the Virgin”. For the same church David John also made the wooden crucifix on the rear wall of the sanctuary, the tabernacle decorated with symbols of the Cross and fishes, and the “Madonna and Child” statue in the Lady Chapel.

For The Catholic Church of the Holy Family at Langley near Slough in 2005 David John made the baptismal font, ambo and altar in Ancaster Stone. Further afield is his bronze sculpture in the crypt of Liverpool Cathedral of “Our Lady of Liverpool”; there is another statue of “Our Lady with Christ” in Cardiff Cathedral, and a Processional Cross at Winchester Cathedral.

In the Catholic Church of Saint Mary Magdalene at Cudworth, Barnsley the carved wooden “Stations of the Cross” are by David John; they are unusual in that they form one long horizontal panel on the north wall of the nave.

David John has also designed and made the altar, tabernacle and lectern for the chapel of the English College in Rome.

This carved statue of Saint Edmund is stylistically very similar to David John’s carved wooden statue of “Saint David of Menevia” at the Catholic Church of Saint Winefride, Holywell, Flintshire, and his carved wooden statue of “Saint Benedict” at the Catholic Church of the same name at Garforth, Leeds.