Statue

FCO - G 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 - G unknown

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

Florence Nightingale - statue

Florence Nightingale - statue

SW1, Waterloo Place

In 1859 only the Guards Memorial was erected, closer to Pall Mall. In 1914 this was moved back to make room for the two statues in front.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Windrush Hackney statue

Windrush Hackney statue

E8, Mare Street, hackney Town Hall

The title is 'Warm Shores'. From Hackney: "The two 9ft bronze figures are based on digital 3D images of over 30 Hackney residents with a ...

1 subject commemorated, 4 creators
Sir Keith Park

Sir Keith Park

SW1, Waterloo Place

A resin version of this statue was temporarily installed in Trafalgar Square on the 'fourth plinth' on 4 November 2009.

2 subjects commemorated, 4 creators
Temple Bar - Charles II

Temple Bar - Charles II

EC4, Paternoster Square

We found the following at Discovering Dickens "An 18th-century account of it, from Harrison’s New and Universal History, Description and...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
V&A façade - Chantrey

V&A façade - Chantrey

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