Mary Gillick

MARY GILLICK was a British sculptor and medallist. Born in Nottingham as Mary Gaskell Tutin, she studied at Nottingham School of Art from 1898 to 1902 and continued her training at the Royal College of Art in London from 1902 to 1904 under the sculptor Édouard Lantéri. In 1905 she married the sculptor and medallist Ernest George Gillick, with whom she also collaborated on medallic projects. From 1911 Gillick exhibited at the Royal Academy and over the following decades produced portrait reliefs, medals and commemorative sculpture. In 1952 her design for the first official coinage portrait of Queen Elizabeth II won the Royal Mint competition. The uncrowned portrait of the young Queen, facing right and wearing a laurel wreath, first appeared on British coins dated 1953 and was widely used on coinage in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries. Gillick was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1953 Coronation Honours. Her coinage portrait of Elizabeth II remained in British circulation until the introduction of Arnold Machin's new portrait and continued to be used on Maundy money; an adapted version was also used on British commemorative postage stamps.