The statues of Parliament Square

In the early hours of Friday the 27th February the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was defaced with orange paint (why is it always orange paint?). The most prominent slur was “Zionist War Criminal”. So far, so 2026. Churchill would happily have agreed to being a Zionist and worn it as a badge of honour. As for “War Criminal”: for these fanatics, every western leader is a war criminal.

The vandal was arrested and the media will move on to the next stunt, but for me the most interesting thing about the story are the statues in Parliament Square. Statues say something about a culture, hence the battles over Confederate statues in the United States and the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol in 2020. The statues in the Parliament Square area, opposite the Houses of Parliament, tell their own fascinating story. A story that even the gods of diversity cannot complain about, as they are not just of British statesmen, but also two Africans, an Indian and a woman.

The most famous and prominent is Churchill’s statue, but anti-clockwise from him the first statue you encounter is David Lloyd George. His proximity to Churchill is fitting, as they were friends, rivals and fellow war leaders. Lloyd George’s statue, with a wind-blown coat and outstretched hand, captures the energy of the man. His energy was vital to leading Britian through the perils of World War One, first as Munitions Minister from 1915, and crucially as Prime Minister, replacing the soporific Herbert Henry Asquith. Yet Lloyd George’s energy was also domestic, laying the first foundations for the modern welfare state, when a reforming Liberal Chancellor.

Next to Lloyd George is the statue of Jan Smuts, the first of the African statesmen. The South African is in his Field Marshal’s uniform and the statue was commissioned due to the efforts of his friend Winston Churchill. His story is perhaps the most remarkable of all these statues. He first rose to prominence as a Boer General, fighting the British in the Second Boer War. This warrior against the British Empire would go on to be a founder of the Union of South Africa, twice its Prime Minister, a member of Lloyd George’s war cabinet in 1917,  Imperial Field Marshal in 1941, and the only man to sign both the Treaty of Versailles and the UN Charter. As well as Lloyd George and Churchill, he also had dealings with another man whose statue is in Parliament Square: Mohandas Gandhi.

Whereas Smuts started off opposing the British Empire and became a key figure in it, Gandhi’s journey was the reverse. Supporting British forces in the Second Boer War, forming a group of Indian stretcher bearers, before returning to India in 1915 and opposing British rule, until he led India to independence in 1947. He first rose to public prominence, however, in fighting for the rights of Indians in South Africa in the late 1900s. In this he was opposed by the Transvaal Colony Colonial Secretary, one Jan Smuts. Smuts had Gandhi imprisoned, but eventually they forged a compromise in the Smuts-Gandhi agreement of January 1914. It was then that Gandhi acquired the honorific title of Mahatma (“great-souled”) by which he is usually known. A meeting between these two men is wonderfully fictionalised in the 1982 Richard Attenborough film, Gandhi.

For the statue of the other African statesman in Parliament Square, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi’s example acted as an inspiration: if not necessarily his methods, his ability to endure imprisonment throughout his career and achieve the triumph of his cause. There is a story that in the 1960s Mandela was visiting London and saw Smuts’s statue. He joked to his colleague Oliver Tambo that they would one day replace Smuts, little knowing that in fact Mandela would join him, in statue form in Parliament Square, in 2007.

The one statue of a woman in the square is Milicent Fawcett, an important campaigner for the right of women to vote. Her statue was unveiled in 2018 on the centenary of the Representation of the People Act of 1918, which gave women the vote for the first time, as well as all men over 21 years old. Fawcett was probably chosen for honour of this statue by a process of elimination. The better known Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst already has a statue honouring her and her daughter Christabel nearby in Victoria Tower Gardens. A statue of Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister, would have been just as fitting for Parliament Square, but unacceptable to Left-wing feminist types.

Despite all these distinguished individuals, my favourite statue in Parliament Square is the oldest one erected there, that of George Canning. This great statesman was the driving force of British politics from 1822 to 1827, but was only briefly Prime Minister in 1827, until his untimely death at only 57. His is the only statue in the square of a man who fought a duel: with his own cabinet colleague, Lord Castlereagh, no less. It might be the only good thing about Liz Truss’s comic turn as Prime Minister that she took the title of shortest premiership from Canning.

A Message from TheArticle

We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout these hard economic times. So please, make a donation.