Statue

FCO - B 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 - B unknown

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

Thomas Coutts statue

Thomas Coutts statue

WC2, Strand, 440

The Story of Holly Lodge' by Margaret Downing, March 2009, says that this statue was commissioned by Coutts' wife "to take pride of place...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Mary Seacole steel statue

Mary Seacole steel statue

W2, St Mary's Terrrace

At the southern end of St Mary’s Terrace, beside the bike track, these statues are extremely difficult to photograph, Turing in particula...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
St Dunstans - Elizabeth I statue

St Dunstans - Elizabeth I statue

EC4, Fleet Street

On stone above QE's statue: "Parochial Schools. St Dunstan in the west. A.D.1839." The history of this statue (and those of King Lud and ...

1 subject commemorated, 5 creators
Colonial Office - S09 - Grenville

Colonial Office - S09 - Grenville

SW1, Whitehall, Foreign Office

Statues Hither and Thither has been invaluable in identifying some of the busts and most of the statues. The statues are not labelled and...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
St John of Wapping  - charity boy

St John of Wapping - charity boy

E1, Scandrett Street, 6 - 8

2 subjects commemorated

Previously viewed

Kevin Dennis

Kevin Dennis

United Kingdom citizen who died in the terrorist attacks in America on 11 September 2001. Dennis Butcher was born on 13 July 1958, the only son of Richard Dennis and Patricia M. Dennis née Butcher...

Person, Tragedy, USA

1 memorial