Statue of Winston Churchill

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Statue of Winston Churchill by Ivor Roberts-Jones, 1973
Parliament Square
London, October 2009

“The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London, is a bronze sculpture of the former British prime minister Winston Churchill, created by Ivor Roberts-Jones. It is located on a spot referred to in the 1950s by Churchill as "where my statue will go". It was unveiled in 1973 by his widow Clementine, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, at a ceremony attended by the serving Prime Minister and four former Prime Ministers, while Queen Elizabeth II gave a speech. The statue is one of twelve statues on or around Parliament Square, most of well-known statesmen. The statue is 12 feet (3.7 m) high and is made of bronze. It was sculpted by Ivor Roberts-Jones and is located on the main green of Parliament Square, opposite the Palace of Westminster. It is said that the artist's friend Kyffin Williams stood in as a model for Churchill. The statue shows Winston Churchill standing with his hand resting on his walking stick and wearing a military greatcoat. His pose is based on a well-known photograph of Churchill inspecting the Chamber of the House of Commons after it had been destroyed by bombing on the night of 10–11 May 1941. The plinth is 8 feet (2.4 m) high with ‘Churchill’ inscribed on it in large capital letters. A proposal to insert pins standing out of the statue's head was turned down in the 1970s – the pins were intended to stop wild birds from sitting on its head. The Churchill Statue Committee had concerns during the statue's development process that it looked ‘a little too much’ like the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Whilst the head was still only cast in plaster, a report on it stated that, ‘At the moment the head is undoubtedly like Churchill, but perhaps not quite right of him at the pinnacle of his career. The cheeks, the eyes, the forehead and the top of the head require improvement. I told Mr. Roberts-Jones that above the eyes I thought I was looking at Mussolini.’ Roberts-Jones agreed to modify the sculpture to reduce the dome of the head in order to lower the forehead.” (Statue of Winston Churchill, Wikipedia)