In the very southern end of Waterloo Place, St James’s, sits a very imposing statue of a past British Monarch, Edward VII, who became King on the death of his mother Queen Victora in 1901. Known to his family as Bertie, he was the longest heir apparent, waiting just under 60 years to take to the throne. That has since been overtaken by our new King, Charles III, who waited just under 69 years.
Edward was born in Buckingham Palace on 9th November 1841, in full Albert Edward, he was the second eldest child to Albert and Victoria.
As a child, Edward was put on a strict regime of education by his parents because of his future responsibility of being the sovereign, this brought out a rebellious streak in him as he often struggled with prolonged mental exertion. He was also denied the opportunity to join the military which was something he had wanted to do as a child, that said, he did spend some time with the Grenadier guard in Ireland. It was here that he was exposed to a woman of easy virtue, which as a young man it ignited something in him as he had been living a sheltered life under his parent's control.
Although it is widely believed that Edward was loyal in the first few years of his marriage to his wife, Queen Alexandra, it was not long before he started to embark on a string of affairs. This led to high-profile romances with sometimes married women, the famous actress Lillie Langtry being his most infamous affair and Jennie Churchill, the mother of Winston Churchill, among others. Even to the point that at his Coronation in 1902, his past mistresses had their own pew, known as Bertie's loose box!!!
He had been known as the playboy prince with excessive eating, drinking and smoking of cigars. It was in the build-up to his Coronation that Edward suffered from appendicitis, postponing his Coronation date from 26th June till 9th August, and even then he wore the much lighter Imperial Crown as opposed to the St Edwards Crown.
So I do find it quite fitting that we find this statue of Edward in the area of St James, also known as club land, because of the large concentration of members clubs in a small area.
It was because of his lifestyle and excessive partying that it was thought he would be a terrible King but, you could not be further from the truth. As his mother had lived most of her reign in mourning, not stepping out in public, her reign was seen as quite dull and dreary, as opposed to the playboy prince, who embraced new technology and was all for social reform.
He knew how to be entertained and embraced the idea of enjoying the fruits of the thriving economy built on the back of the industrial revolution. He made it his ambition to change the face of the monarchy, going on a building campaign, not only refacing the front of Buckingham Palace with new Portland stone but also having the Mall laid out to become one of the greatest ceremonial routes in the world with the grand Admiralty Arch at the opposing end of Buckingham Palace. Also some of the grand government buildings on Whitehall we can thank for the grandioso ideas of Edward,
As a prince, he was said to be deeply shocked at the way people were treated by the British in India after a state visit there. He wrote back to his mother at the time, saying that the British would be far more accepted to rule if we were more firm and fair as opposed to the brutality of rule we were imposing at the time.
Edward had learnt from the hostile experience of his upbringing from his parents and made sure that his son, the future George V, would not suffer from the same fate. So he embarked on training his son up to be king, he made it part and parcel of what you do for an heir.
The statue in question was unveiled by Edward’s son, King George V on 21st May 1921, 11 years after the death of Edward, as the devastating WW1 happened before a monument could be put up in his honour.
This bronze statue, which sits on a plinth designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, was sculpted by Australian-born Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal, whose other works close to here are the pediment on the front of the Treasury and a grand statue on the top of Australia House.
If you look at the side of the plinth you can see the damage sustained by a bomb that was dropped during the Blitz, the building on Carlton House Terrace and the gardens opposite were the impact sites of the bombs which left “scarring” from that time.
By Frank O'Beirne
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