The sculptor and his widow

 

Everyone in Hull is familiar with the work of William Day Keyworth junior, whether they know it or not.  He was a sculptor who followed in the footsteps of his father and created many works which are landmarks in the city.  

Keyworth was born in Hull in 1843 and spent some of his early years in Chelsea, London, developing his craft.  In 1875 he married Elizabeth Pybus in Hull and they settled at 2, Osborne Villas, Spring Bank.  By 1891 they had moved to a larger house at 244 Spring Bank; William had a workshop / studio at the rear of the house.  There he sculpted statues of Hull's best-known figures, among them Andrew Marvell, William Wilberforce and William de la Pole.  He was patronised by the Wilson shipping line family and his marble busts of members of the family were exhibited at the Royal Academy.  He made a figure of Britannia for the front of the Exchange Buildings in Lowgate; and, branching out of Hull, he made the colossal lions for the front of Leeds Town Hall.  On a much smaller scale, he made the memorial to W T Dibb which was affixed to the wall of the chapel of the Charterhouse in 1888.

It seemed to be a success story.  William and Elizabeth had two daughters and, at least in 1892, two homes, the second at the seaside in Withernsea.  But on Saturday 9 August 1902 William took a service revolver into his workshop and shot himself in the head.  That was the assumption, and it seems the obvious one.  But he left no suicide note, and no one was quite sure why he'd done it.  The burial register says "Suicide - no evidence as to state of mind".  The likeliest reason was money troubles.  The demand for his style of work had diminished, and perhaps he was in debt.  Elizabeth did not attend the funeral on 12 August, but we cannot read too much into that.

Elizabeth Keyworth was living in Hornsea in 1911, at 2 Marine Drive with her two daughters, neither of whom were married.  On 1 August 1914 she was admitted to the Charterhouse  She didn't stay.  She is not on the 1920 electoral register as a resident, or on subsequent ones, but she didn't die until 1929.  Her burial record mentions Hornsea so perhaps she returned to Marine Drive.