Statue Blunders

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 10 December 1915, Page 3

Statue Blunders

Most egregious blunders aye often perpetrated on public monuments where one would think the utmost care would be taken to guard against them. When the statue of the Duke of Cambridge, for instance, which stands in the middle of Whitehall, opposite the War Office, was unveiled it was found that its inscription simply bristled with errors.

Curiously enough, the memorial to the Duke in the Guards Chapel was similarly mistake haunted. The name “George” by which be was best known, was omitted ; “ division ’ dropped one of its “ i’s ” ; and “ commanded ” appeared instead of “commander.” Yet nobody noticed these solecisms until King Edwart’s eagle eye spotted them. :

A bust was placed in the Law Courts some years ago in memory of that great divorce judge, Lord St. Holier. One would have thought lawyers would have been the last men in the world to let an inscription go unrevised, yet they proved even as other men. He was described as “C.G.8., ”

when there' “ ain’t no sich ” honour ; and more amazing still he was described as President of the Admiralty Division ! Exeter is rightly proud of its equestrian monument to the fine Devonian, Sir Redvers Buller, but it suffered from a perfect epidemic of mistakes when it was first unveiled. On it appears a list of the battle honours of the 60th King’s Own Rifle Corps, and there the carver came a croppsr. He spelt Salamanca, “ Salamanoa Toulouse was given a double “ o;” and Vimiera appeared in the disguise of “ Vimieta ”

Quite lately, when the statue of Sir Henry Campbell-Banner-man was unveiled in Westminster Abbey, it wae found that the letter carver had made that statesman three years too young, for ha was born in 1836, and the inscription turned the six into a nine 1