" May the Franco-British Exhibition encourage rivalry and stimulate interchange of ideas, strengthen the brotherhood of nations, and in so doing help on the work of civilisation, and promote peace and prosperity throughout the world ."
(from a speech by the Prince of Wales - the future King George V- on opening the Exhibition on 14th May 1908.)

After its foundation in 1905, the Society and it's council members were involved in the first international exhibitions of British Sculpture and most notably the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 which marked the "Entente Cordiale". 

On the occasion of this great exhibition, the London Olympic Games were staged in the first purpose-built Olympic stadium - White City in West London. It was there that Pierre de Coubertin famously said that " L'important n'est pas de gagner, mais de participer ." Also, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle was reporting these Olympics for the Daily Mail. It was Charles Lawes-Wittewronge who represented the Society along with Sir Thomas Brock at the Committee of Selection for the Fine Arts and successfully displayed works of British Sculpture. The following year, 1909, Lawes-Wittewronge was elected President of the Society of British Sculptors.

The success of the great exhibitions has always been attributed to the Arts and one catalogue from the Historical Library of the RBS demonstrates the publicity surrounding such events. We house a few plates from the Paris Exhibition of 1900 for which palaces were built - the Grand and Petit Palais -, and are stillholding some exhibitions. Lately the Grand Palais has been refurbished and offers an outstanding space with its high glass ceiling.

Sir Charles Bennett Lawes-Wittewronge (1843-1911) was a founder member and the second President of the Society, 1909-1911. He was also a sportsman. While a student  at Eton and at Cambridge he distinguished himself by winning, in athletic contests, every prize that could be won as an oarsman and as a runner. He carried on his athletics' feat until the age of fifty-five when taking up speed cycling. After leaving Cambridge, Lawes made sculpture his profession, and rented a studio in Chelsea. He began his training in London under J. H. Foley RA, and in 1869 he studied under Hugo Hagen in Berlin. Also in 1869, on 8 April, he married Marie Amelie Rose ( d. 1928), and had one child, John Bennet Fountaine, who succeeded to the baronetcy. Between 1872 and 1908 Lawes exhibited twelve works at the Royal Academy, including Girl at the Stream (exh. 1872), Daphne (exh. 1880), The Panther (exh. 1881), and the half-sized model (exh. 1888) for the group They Bound me on . A few other examples of his work appeared at the Society (later Royal Society) of British Artists, the Salon des Artistes Français, and elsewhere. In 1878 he won an honourable mention at the Paris Universal Exhibition. In later life Lawes-Wittewronge devoted much of his energy to a colossal marble group, The Death of Dirce . Bronze versions were exhibited in 1906 and 1908 at the Royal Academy and at the Franco-British Exhibition. And the marble group in 1911 at the International Fine Arts Exhibition in Rome, where he assisted in arranging the British sculpture. In 1912 the sculpture was set up in the grounds of the family estate at Rothamsted; a smaller bronze replica became part of the collections of the Tate Gallery.  Lawes-Wittewronge died at Rothamsted on 6 October 1911 after an operation for appendicitis, and was cremated at Golders Green, Middlesex.

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