Equestrian statue of the Duke of Cambridge

The bronze equestrian statue of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, stands directly outside the Old War Office building on Whitehall. It depicts the Duke in the full uniform of a Field Marshal, complete with his medals and a baton, mounted on a powerful charger. The sculptor, Adrian Jones, captured the Duke in a grand, commanding pose that reflects his long tenure as the military head of the British Army during the late nineteenth century. There is a distinct irony in the statue’s placement. The Duke was a staunch conservative who spent decades actively resisting the modernization of the British Army. He viewed many proposed reforms as threats to the traditions of the institution he led, yet his likeness now watches over the very building that was designed to house the administrative heart of the military forces he once sought to keep unchanged. The statue rests on a forty-five-ton plinth of Dartmoor granite. If you look closely at the sides, you will see two bas-relief panels carved into the stone. These panels highlight the Duke’s deep, long-standing connections with the Grenadier Guards and the 17th Lancers. King Edward the Seventh unveiled the monument in 1907, just a few years after the death of the man it commemorates.