The new RNLI memorial sculpture at Poole encapsulates the charity’s heritage and purpose – but who is behind its design?

It’s 7am and there’s a salty breeze blowing  across the flats of Sittingbourne at the edge of the Medway Estuary. Sam Holland has already emerged from her houseboat and mucked out the horses; now she’s walking her two dogs through the dewy fields. It’s a peaceful scene, but sculptor Sam’s mind is elsewhere, frantically poring over the logistics of engineering steel. ‘The mornings are when I think about whatever project I’m working on, and how I’m going to do things,’ she explains. ‘I get completely and utterly obsessed.’ With the dogs suitably exercised and resting in the houseboat, Sam climbs aboard a very different vessel moored next door: an old ammunitions barge, converted into a floating studio. She pulls on her overalls and sets to work.

As someone who lives and works on the water, Sam was an ideal candidate to design the new RNLI memorial sculpture – especially as it wasn’t her first project associated with saving lives at sea. In 2004 she completed a sculpture of Dic Evans, the late Moelfre lifeboatman who received two RNLI Gold Medals for Gallantry during his time as Coxswain from 1954–1970. Following his death in 2001, the local community started to raise funds for a fitting tribute to its well-loved hero.

‘I met Dic when I was a child,’ recalls Sam, who often visited her father’s hometown of Moelfre when she was growing up. ‘My grandfather was a sea captain and was great friends with Dic. I was delighted to be selected to work on his sculpture, and it was a very emotional journey for me. Although I knew Dic when I was young, I didn’t appreciate then how brave you have to be to go out in the seas he went out in and save people.’ Inspired by Coxswain Evans’s bravery, Sam created a towering bronze figure of the man bracing himself against the wind and looking out to sea from the Moelfre cliffs.

The larger-than-life nature of Sam’s RNLI projects (the Dic Evans sculpture stands at over 3.5m high; the memorial is over 4.5m) is a theme that runs through much of her work. ‘My art is about power, movement and scale,’ she explains. ‘I’m better at doing things on a large scale, which gives a sense of power anyway, but it’s also about showing the tension and tautness in the muscles. That can give a sense of movement.’ It’s a technique that Sam developed while studying fine art sculpture at the City and Guilds London Art School. After gaining a First Class degree, she began to teach life modelling and drawing, while undertaking private sculpture commissions.

After she moved to Kent and set up a studio in the mid 1990s, the demand for Sam’s work grew. She was welcomed into the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 2001, and by now had established her own style of bronze portraits. But she was also fascinated by steel as a material. ‘Working in stainless steel gives you a simple strength,’ she enthuses. ‘The metal also works differently in natural and artificial light. It has a very bright appearance even on the dullest day, but then changes completely at night to give a dramatic glowing effect with the use of appropriate lighting.’

Sam’s portfolio of work now includes several steel sculptures created using her own technique: the interweaving of steel bands to create figures with long, sinewy limbs. It’s an instantly recognisable style, created through no small amount of graft. ‘Working on these projects is not all enjoyable,’ says Sam. ‘Much of it is organising, welding and heavy lifting. There are moments when you’re just doing the art and it’s pure joy but the rest is hard work.’ Sam also admits she’s a perfectionist, almost to the point of distraction. ‘I’m driven to get it completely right and if I don’t I start again,’ she explains. ‘And often I’ll have an idea that will change everything. The problem with that is reaching the point where you say: “Enough changing, it’s not going to get any better – time to move on.” I find that difficult!’

With the memorial complete and unveiled, Sam is turning her attention to another project. She’s been commissioned to create a life-and-a-quarter-sized bronze sculpture of William McGregor – the founder of the football league – for Aston Villa football club. She is also tendering for more work. ‘I don’t know what will come next but I hope it’s big!’ she says.

In the meantime, her timeless image of one person reaching to save another at sea will inspire all who visit the home of the RNLI. And what about Sam – has she been inspired by the project? ‘You can’t really imagine putting your life on the line in the way that the people named on the memorial did, and the way that people continue to do to save lives at sea,’ she says. ‘It makes you feel humble, really. I want people to make up their own minds about the sculpture, but it will be fantastic for them to be inspired by it as a beacon of hope. It could well be.’ [See Sam at work at rnli.org.uk/memorialcreation.]