Thomas Woolner RA (1825-1892) was born at Hadleigh, Suffolk, and came to London in 1838, where he studied sculpture under William Behnes. He attended the Royal Academy Schools from 1842, and first exhibited in 1843. Through Rossetti met William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and agreed that their views on art were applicable to sculpture, so he accepted membership of the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 - the only sculptor to be a member. He was also a poet, and contributed to the Pre-Raphaelite magazine 'The Germ'. Some six years later he left for Australia to seek a wealthier life, and his Pre-Raphaelite brothers drew a famous collection of portraits of each other to send to him. He returned to England in 1854 with an enhanced reputation, and became popular as a sculptor of intellectuals - such s Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning, Gladstone and Darwin. He married Alice Waugh on 6 September 1864, later becoming William Holman Hunt's brother-in-law when Hunt married Edith Waugh in 1875. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1875, and was Professor of Sculpture there from 1877 to 1879. He also did occasional architectural such as the Manchester Assize Courts. Woolner died on 7 October 1892, when he had a seizure and died almost instantaneously. He is buried at Old Hendon Churchyard.