Henry Hems [commonly known as Harry Hems] was born in Islington, London, England on 12 June 1842. After serving a seven-year woodcarving apprenticeship in Sheffield in the late 1850s and early 1860s, he returned to London. In 1866 he moved to Exeter in Devon to work on the building of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. He subsequently remained in Exeter where he established a workshop. The business undertook repairs to several medieval churches and created work for a number of new churches. It has been calculated that by 1881 Harry Hems had worked on over 400 churches and 100 public buildings. In the 1890s his sons, Greville (Grevi) Chester Hems (1869-1935), Harry Turner Hems (1873-1952) and William Hems (1879-1940) joined the firm which was subsequently renamed Harry Hems & Sons.

Text source: Arts + Architecture Profiles from Art History Research net (AHRnet) https://www.arthistoryresearch.net/


Do you know someone who would love this resource?
Tell them about it...