Sixty Joyless De-Britished Uncrowned Commonpoor Years (1949-2009)

Elizabeth II Vice-Regal Saint: Remembering Paul Comtois (1895–1966), Lt.-Governor of Québec
Britannic Inheritance: Britain's proud legacy. What legacy will America leave?
English Debate: Daniel Hannan revels in making mince meat of Gordon Brown
Crazy Canucks: British MP banned from Canada on national security grounds
Happy St. Patrick's: Will Ireland ever return to the Commonwealth?
Voyage Through the Commonwealth: World cruise around the faded bits of pink.
No Queen for the Green: The Green Party of Canada votes to dispense with monarchy.
"Sir Edward Kennedy": The Queen has awarded the senator an honorary Knighthood.
President Obama: Hates Britain, but is keen to meet the Queen?
The Princess Royal: Princess Anne "outstanding" in Australia.
H.M.S. Victory: In 1744, 1000 sailors went down with a cargo of gold.
Queen's Commonwealth: Britain is letting the Commonwealth die.
Justice Kirby: His support for monarchy almost lost him appointment to High Court
Royal Military Academy: Sandhurst abolishes the Apostles' Creed.
Air Marshal Alec Maisner, R.I.P. Half Polish, half German and 100% British.
Cherie Blair: Not a vain, self regarding, shallow thinking viper after all.
Harry Potter: Celebrated rich kid thinks the Royals should not be celebrated
The Royal Jelly: A new king has been coronated, and his subjects are in a merry mood
Victoria Cross: Australian TROOPER MARK DONALDSON awarded the VC
Godless Buses: Royal Navy veteran, Ron Heather, refuses to drive his bus
Labour's Class War: To expunge those with the slightest pretensions to gentility
100 Top English Novels of All Time: The Essential Fictional Library
BIG BEN: Celebrating 150 Years of the Clock Tower

Thursday 7 August 2008

Trafalgar gets its Fourth Plinth

An Equestrian Statue of Elizabeth II will be commissioned in Trafalgar Square

QUEEN RIDING WINDSORLONDON'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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Above and below, Her Majesty rides equestrian in Regina, Saskatchewan. The statue was unveiled by Her Majesty in 2005, to celebrate the province's centennial

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A similar statue below was unveiled in Ottawa years before. Here she rides atop Burmese, her favourite horse, which was donated to Her Majesty by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1969

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1 comments:

trinitylaw said...

Do we have a confirmed source for this splendid news?