![Eye, Nose and Cheek](https://d3d00swyhr67nd.cloudfront.net/w800h800/collection/TATE/TATE/TATE_TATE_T00871-001.jpg)
Sculptor in various materials, born in Banbridge, County Down. McWilliam studied drawing at the Slade School of Fine Art, 1928–31, then worked in Paris for a year, beginning sculpture in 1933. Five years later he showed with the British Surrealist Group, having his first one-man show at the London Gallery the following year. After five years’ service with the Royal Air Force, partly in the Far East as an intelligence officer, he resumed sculpture, teaching at the Slade, 1947–68. Joined LG in 1949, RBA in 1950 and was elected an RA associate in 1959, but he resigned four years later. Among McWilliam’s many commissions were The Four Seasons for the Festival of Britain, 1951; Father Courage for Kent University at Canterbury, New Zealand, 1960; and Hampstead Figure at Swiss Cottage, London, 1964.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)