Hew Martin Lorimer,OBE (22 May 1907 – 1 September 1993) was a Scottishsculptor.
He was born inEdinburgh, the second son ofarchitect SirRobert Lorimer. He was educated atLoretto School inMusselburgh, then atMagdalen College,Oxford University, but he left Oxford prematurely to studydesign andsculpture underAlexander Carrick at theEdinburgh College of Art.[1] After graduating in 1934, he entered anapprenticeship with sculptor andstonemasonEric Gill.[2]
Lorimer was principally anarchitectural sculptor, and his profound religious beliefs had a lasting effect on his art and subject matter. AfterWorld War II, he worked on many grand sculptures, includingOur Lady of the Isles, 1958, a massivegranite statue of themother and child sited atRueval onSouth Uist.
Between 1950 and 1955 he also sculpted the artwork adorning thefacade of theNational Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, for which he produced a series of tall,allegorical figures, depictinghistory,law,medicine,music,poetry,science andtheology.[2] The architect of the library wasReginald Fairlie, who had been apprentice to Lorimer's father Robert. Lorimer carved the figures directly into the stone rather than copying from clay models, a practice known asdirect carving.[3] Also for Fairlie, Lorimer created a massive tympanum frieze showing St Francis returning to Assisi for The Friary in Dundee in 1959.[4]
Crucifix on exterior east wall of St Martin and St Ninian Church,Whithorn (1959). Has suffered some damage and loss of detail after a botched cleaning job in 1987.
A statue of St Meddan in niche above the main entrance to Our Lady of the Assumption and St Meddan's Church inTroon.
The font ofSt Machar's Cathedral (1954).
One of Lorimer's final public commissions was the statue of Christ on the Cross for the University of Dundee Chaplaincy (1983, completed in 1986).[5]
He was awarded anOBE in 1986 for services to architecture and conservation.
Hew was the nephew of the Scottish painterJohn Henry Lorimer[2] and the grandson of Prof.James Lorimer, lawyer and academic.[6]Lorimer lived inKellie Castle inFife, and died in a nursing home in St Andrews in 1993. He is survived by his sons, Robert and Henry, and daughter, Monica.
The castle is owned today by theNational Trust for Scotland who maintain a changing exhibition of his works plus those of his father,Robert Lorimer, and his uncle, thepainterJohn Henry Lorimer.
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