... was originally modelled in clay, by the Italian sculptor Carlo Marochetti, for the Great Exhibition of 1851, when it stood at the entrance to the Crystal Palace. It was so well received that two years later several illustrious subscribers, headed by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, set out to raise money for it to be cast in bronze. After a lengthy dispute over its location, the bronze statue was installed in Old Palace Yard in 1860.
In September 1940, it was reportedly lifted off the ground, and suffered superficial damage, when a German bomb exploded a few yards away from it. It was restored after the end of the war, and again in 2009.
© Haydn Thompson 2018