Henry Moore fund to pay bills for sculptors struggling with cost of living

Henry Moore's Large Two Forms, 1969, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Observer

Henry Moore, the son of a coalminer, would never have created great works of art if he had not received a gift of financial aid as a young man.

A survivor of the battlefields of the first world war, he returned to his hometown of Castleford, West Yorkshire, believing he would become a school teacher. But the intervention of a former art mistress led him to apply for an ex-serviceman’s grant.