George Anderson Lawson (1832-1904) was a Victorian era sculptor who was associated with the New Sculpture movement.
Lawson was born in Edinburgh. He studied in Glasgow, and settled in London in 1866. His reputation was established through the creation of statues of distinguished citizens. His first major work was the statue of the Duke of Wellington at the top of Wellington's Column in the centre of Liverpool at the end of William Brown Street. He also created the relief sculpture depicting Wellington's major victory at Waterloo. The monument was completed "towards the end of 1865 when George Lawson's relief panel of the final battle at Waterloo was fixed in place on the pedestal". [1]
He later created the memorial to Robert Burns in Ayr, inaugurated in 1892. Other versions were circulated to Dublin, Melbourne, Montreal and elsewhere. Other memorials include those to James Arthur (Glasgow), Joseph Pease (Darlington), John Vaughan (Middlesbrough) and John Biggs (Leicester). In New Zealand he commemorated William Sefton Moorhouse in Christchurch.
He is also remembered for his classical friezes, especially reliefs for Glasgow City Chambers, George Square, and panels for the Municipal Buildings, Bath. The art critic Marion Spielmann described his work as "strong, manly and artistic".[2]