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

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

W2, Kensington Gardens

The first Peter Pan, Nina Boucicault, (always a woman) modelled for the statue in 1911. Barrie personally commissioned the sculpture and ...

1 subject commemorated, 6 creators
Imperial Hotel - statue 13

Imperial Hotel - statue 13

WC1, Russell Square

On this site there used to be a sister hotel to Hotel Russell, also designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll and erected in 1898. It was demolish...

1 creator
Sarah Siddons statue

Sarah Siddons statue

W2, Paddington Green

Oh dear, the poor girl needs to spend some more time in make-up. The pose is inspired by Reynolds' 1784 painting 'Mrs Siddons as the Trag...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Brunel statue - WC2

Brunel statue - WC2

WC2, Victoria Embankment

{On the plinth:} Isambard Kingdom Brunel, civil engineer, born 1806, died 1859.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Peter Osgood statue

Peter Osgood statue

SW6, Fulham Road, Chelsea Football Club, Stamford Bridge

Statue sculpted by Philip Jackson.

1 subject commemorated, 4 creators