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.
