Erection date: 30/6/1921
{On the base of the statue:}
George Washington
{On the plinth:}
Presented to the people of Great Britain and Ireland by the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1921.
The marble original is in Richmond, Virginia, USA. This bronze copy was presented by the Commonwealth of Virginia. There is a story that, since Washington once said he would never stand on English ground, this statue was supplied with some good ol' American soil on which to stand. For other soil-related stories see Winston Churchill, the Whitfield Tabernacle and the Unknown warrior.
Our colleague, Jamie Davis, has found a brief British Pathe item that shows "Washington Statue. Gift of State of Virginia - received on behalf of Nation by Lord Curzon. Trafalgar Square, London." None of the dignitaries on the film look to us like Curzon.
View from the Mirror has a good post about this statue.
From TribLive, describing the Jefferson Memorial Cemetery, Pittsburgh:
"... in the Presidential Court. It's a historic bronze statue of George Washington. Commissioned by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin in 1794, sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon created the original marble statue. The artist made a plaster cast of Washington's face to use for the sculpture.
In 1910, the Gorham Manufacturing Co. was authorized to make bronze replicas from the original molds. The resulting statues are displayed all over the country and world, including one at Versailles Palace in France and another at Trafalgar Square in London. The final statue cast stands in the park overlooking some of the first lawn crypts installed here, and the mold no longer exists."
Site: George Washington (1 memorial)
WC2, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery front lawn
2025: San reported: "More than a century after it first arrived in London, a statue of George Washington is once again standing tall, newly restored and shining in Trafalgar Square. ... The restoration was led by the nonprofit Friends of the Washington Statue in partnership with British architects, including Norman Foster. After a month-long conservation effort, the statue was cleaned, repaired and returned to London on a new pedestal topped with a time capsule and soil from Mount Vernon. It then returned to London, just in time for a summer rededication ahead of the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026."
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