Joseph Edwards was a Welsh sculptor. His work appears in many churches and cemeteries in England and Wales, in Westminster Abbey, and in the old town hall of Merthyr Tydfil. Seventy of his works were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts between 1838 and 1878. Joseph Edwards was born on 5 March 1814 in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, Wales, the son of a stonemason, and went to school in Merthyr. At the age of seventeen he saw the collection of stone Celtic crosses at Margam Abbey and decided to become a sculptor. Apprenticed to a memorial mason in Swansea, he was quickly promoted to foreman. In 1835, he went to London where he began working for William Behnes. In 1837, Edwards became a student at the Royal Academy of Arts where he won several prizes for his work. His early works include a memorial to Sir John Bernard Bosanquet. Another memorial monument, entitled “Religion”, was shown at an international exhibition in 1862. A version of this monument appears on the grave of Eliza Vaughan in Highgate (Western) Cemetery, London. Edward’s work can be seen in churches throughout England and Wales. He made busts of many contemporary figures including Taliesin ap Iolo, Thomas Stephens (c. 1871), G. T. Clark, William Williams (M.P. for Coventry), Edith Wynne, and George Virtue, and members of the Beaufort, Guest, Raglan, and Crawshay families. By 1881 he seems to have fallen on hard times as he was living as a lodger in Robert Street, west of Euston Station and that year, sponsored by George Frederic Watts, was awarded a pension under the Turner Bequest, but he died shortly after receiving it.