Statue of the Earl Mountbatten, London
Statue of the Earl Mountbatten | |
---|---|
Artist | Franta Belsky |
Year | 1983 |
Medium | Bronze sculpture |
Subject | Earl Mountbatten |
Dimensions | 2.7 m (8.9 ft) |
Location | Mountbatten Green, London |
51°30′13″N 0°07′43″W / 51.503607°N 0.12866°W |
A bronze statue of Admiral of the Fleet Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma is located on Mountbatten Green, off Horse Guards Road, Whitehall, London, England.[1][2] The sculptor was Franta Belsky and the work was cast by the Meridian Bronze Foundry. The memorial was unveiled on 2 November 1983.[2][3]
Description
The larger than life size statue stands 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in) high and depicts Lord Mountbatten in his admiral's uniform, displaying his honours including the
The bronze statue was erected on a small open area on the north side of the junction of
History
Mountbatten was assassinated in August 1979 by a bomb planted aboard his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland, by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Calls for a memorial to Mountbatten began in the Letters pages of The Times in November 1979; in July 1981 a further letter in support of the proposal was published, which was signed by the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, leaders of opposition parties and members of the armed forces.[4] The Queen, Elizabeth II, chose the location for the statue[3] and the matter was considered by the government in 1982.[5] The £100,000 for the memorial was raised by public subscription.[3]
The statue was put in place in October 1983 and the area remained under heavy guard until the formal ceremony on 2 November.[6] The Times reported that among the 1500 guests were "most of the British royal family and 13 crowned heads from Europe".[6]
Before the unveiling, Thatcher delivered a speech praising Mountbatten as "A gallant figure, royal, bold, steeped in tradition yet unconventional, [who] served the land he loved, in peace with tireless devotion, in war with supreme bravery."[7] In unveiling the statue, the Queen referred to Lord Mountbatten as "Uncle Dickie" and said:
The vitality and force of his personality combined with an astonishing range of abilities. He could be far-sighted with enormous breadth of vision yet he could also concentrate in the minutest detail of any problem. He was a perfectionist who always mastered his subject.[8]
This was followed by a dedication performed by Gerald Ellison, the Bishop of London.[3]
The ceremony was accompanied by the band and trumpeters from the
References
- ^ "Earl Mountbatten of Burma – Horse Guards Parade, London, UK". Waymarking. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
- ^ a b c "Statue: Mountbatten statue". London Remembers. 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
- ^ Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
- ^ "Mountbatten Statue". The Times. London. 6 July 1981.
- ^ "Proposed statue of Earl Mountbatten, Foreign Office Green, Westminster, London". Discovery. The National Archives (United Kingdom). Retrieved 17 November 2014.
- ^ a b Cross, David (3 November 1983). "Mountbatten statue unveiled by the Queen". The Times. London.
- ^ a b Speech at unveiling of statue of Earl Mountbatten, margaretthatcher.org
- ^ "Elizabeth presides as statue of Lord Mountbatten unveiled". The Bulletin (Bend). Oregon. 2 November 1983. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
- ^ The Mountbatten Statue, Godfrey Dykes, with programme
External links
- Media related to Statue of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma at Wikimedia Commons