Equestrian statue of Ferdinand Foch, London

The bronze equestrian statue of Marshal Ferdinand Foch in Lower Grosvenor Gardens was intentionally positioned to greet travelers arriving from France. While the monument was originally planned for the northern end of these gardens, the sculptor Georges Malissard insisted on the current southern site. He wanted the statue to be one of the first things French citizens saw upon stepping out of the nearby Victoria Station, the terminus for prestigious boat trains arriving from the continent. Foch remains the only French military commander to be granted the title of honorary Field Marshal in the British Army. His central role as Supreme Allied Commander during the final, decisive months of the First World War earned him immense respect from his British counterparts, leading to the formation of a memorial committee shortly after his death in 1929. The monument itself is a replica of a sculpture Malissard had created just two years earlier for the town of Cassel, France, cementing a visual link between the two nations across the English Channel.