Statue

FCO - C unknown

Erection date: 1873

Site: Foreign and Commonwealth Office - St James's Park side (8 memorials)

SW1, Horse Guards Road, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign Office was completed in 1873 to the 1861 designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, with Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt for the St James’s Park front.

There are some allegorical figures on the St James's Park facade at 3rd floor level, and at the corners of the main projecting block there are 8 statues, as follows (left to right):
A , 3rd floor north facing
B , 3rd floor west facing
C , 3rd floor west facing
D , 2nd floor south facing
E , 2nd floor north facing
F , 2nd floor west facing
G , 2nd floor west facing
H , 2nd floor south facing

We would appreciate some help identifying these fine gentlemen.  Seems likely that they are the eight Foreign Secretaries who in about 1870 were deemed the most worthy of a statue.  Wikipedia provides lists of these chaps, with pictures - about 25 (some served repeatedly).  Stephen Brasher has had a go at identifying those honoured with a statue and he suggests statue E might be George Hamilton-Gordon 4th Earl of Aberdeen.  We agree with the suit but the hair-line is not persuasive.   Would anyone else like to have a go at this game of statue snap?

2017: We've collected the personages on the Whitehall side of this building.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
FCO - C unknown

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

V&A façade - Prince Albert

V&A façade - Prince Albert

SW7, Cromwell Road

Excluding the allegories (such as Knowledge) there are 36 statues on the two public façades of the V&A Museum, on Exhibition Road and...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Darcey Bussell - Dancer with a Ribbon

Darcey Bussell - Dancer with a Ribbon

W1, Oxford Street, 116 - 122, The Plaza

The 3 green panels behind Darcey carry the lettering 'B' '&' 'H'. This 1925 building was designed for the department store Bourne and...

2 creators
George IV

George IV

WC2, Trafalgar Square

One third of the sculptor's fees, totalling £9,000, were paid by the king, who was also responsible for the choice of Roman costume and, ...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Queen Victoria statue - Carlton House Terrace

Queen Victoria statue - Carlton House Terrace

SW1, Carlton House Terrace, 15

This statue used to be in the Constitutional Club (disbanded 1979) at 28 Northumberland Avenue.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
General Gordon on a camel

General Gordon on a camel

WC2, St Martin's Place

To commemorate Gordon, the Corps of Royal Engineers, Gordon's own Corps, commissioned a statue from Edward Onslow Ford. The original spec...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator