Otago Sculpture Trust

In Site Library - Greater Dunedin: Queen Victoria (Queens Gardens) (1905)

InSite

Queen Victoria Memorial........Queens Gardens......Herbert Hampton, sculptor.

Queen Victoria's nose has been more the subject of recent attention than the merits of the statue as a memorial to the Queen who died, on 22 January 1901, after a reign which lasted almost 64 years. In 1995 the statue was splashed with paint and the nose of the former monarch was broken off. Her face was chipped and two fingers of her right hand were removed and her sceptre and orb damaged. Then in February 2000 the two bronze figures which sit either side of Her Majesty had a corrosive liquid thrown over them, causing extensive damage. Full conservation of the memorial was only completed later that year.

Some of these attacks seem to have been crude political protests. Perhaps this is not surprising since the statue always had a political function as well as serving as a memorial for the late Queen. A statue was a way of boosting the Province of Otago over its rivals in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland who had all recently commissioned statues of the late monarch. Moreover, mourning for Victoria was deeply linked with ideas of Empire.  On February 8^th 1901 an Otago Daily Times leader called for a memorial statue: "There is hardly a man woman or child in the province that would not contribute something." it proclaimed. This editorial came the day after the newspaper had reported the departure, cheered on by large crowds, of Imperial troops who had swept through Dunedin on a recruiting drive on their way to the Boer War. More sombrely, the unveiling of Victoria statues around the country three or four years later was often associated with commemorations for the dead of this colonial adventure, although Dunedin does have its own memorial in the Oval. In later years, members of the Naval League were photographed around the Queen during the annual celebrations of Trafalgar Day. And in early September 1997 the statue was again on the front page when it became the repository of floral tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales who had died, days earlier, in Paris in a car crash.

Dunedin was the last of the major centres to commission a statue of Queen Victoria. Like Wellington it decided to do so only after the Queen had died. The Dunedin statue, unlike its rivals around the country, is carved in marble.  It was unveiled on March 25th 1905. The sculptor was Herbert Hampton, a respected if not widely celebrated British sculptor. The late Queen is shown standing, crowned and with orb and sceptre, symbols of Imperial power, in her hands. She is raised on a plinth which is flanked by two mourning figures. Both are in bronze. The figure to the left personifies Justice, and holds a sword. The figure to the right, Wisdom, is holding a scroll. On the plinth two putti, little naked angels, support a shield which commemorates Victoria R et I: Queen and Empress. It is an elegant and dignified memorial although the town scape around her has changed to such an extent since her unveiling that she now seems marooned on a giant traffic island, a slightly comic figure from a bygone era. 

Richard Dingwall.

Text Copyright Richard Dingwall