Vice-Regal Saint: Trafalgar gets its Fourth Plinth
An Equestrian Statue of Elizabeth II will be commissioned in Trafalgar Square
LONDON'S TRAFALGAR SQUARE, to educate the uninitiated, is dominated by a monument, set on a 156-foot column, of Britain’s greatest naval hero, Horatio, Lord Nelson. Nelson died in 1805 during the final hours of his command in the Napoleonic Wars’ most significant naval engagement, when, without losing a single ship, Britain trounced the combined forces of France and Spain at Cape Trafalgar off the Spanish coast.
Nelson’s monument is surrounded by four plinths. Three are occupied by statues of Generals Havelock and Napier, and King George IV. The fourth plinth, its 1841 commission vacated for want of funds, remained empty until only a couple of years ago. In recent years the plinth’s fate had become the focus of heated debate, as a commission struck for the purpose mooted a variety of appropriate occupants (amongst them Princess Diana and the soccer champion David Beckham), but eventually designated it a showcase for British sculptors and modern art, with installations to rotate over periodic intervals.
Ultimately and thankfully that will come to an end now, as it has been announced that Her Majesty will permanently occupy the fourth plinth in memorial, most likely as the longest reigning sovereign in British Commonwealth history. Needless to say this is most deserving.
It is also long overdue. What I find most surprising about this is that there are no statues, equestrian or otherwise, of the Queen in the United Kingdom today, apart from the one in Windsor Great Park. In fact Canada by itself has more, especially with its two larger than life equestrians of our Queen in the capitals Ottawa and Regina.
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1 comments:
Do we have a confirmed source for this splendid news?
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