Unity Makes Strength

Anglo-Belgian Memorial, Victoria Embankment, January 2023.

Opposite Cleopatra’s Needle on the Victoria Embankment is the Anglo-Belgian Memorial.

”It was unveiled by Princess Clémentine of Belgium at a ceremony on 12 October 1920, the fifth anniversary of the execution of British nurse Edith Cavell in Brussels. The ceremony was attended by the Prime Minister of Belgium Leon Delacroix, and the gift was formally accepted on behalf of the British nation by Lord Curzon.” (Wikipedia)

Fittingly, the memorial is a joint effort by British architect, Sir Reginald Blomfield, and Belgian sculptor, Victor Rousseau. It depicts a Belgian woman shepherding a boy and girl carrying improbably large garlands of flowers. It marks Belgium’s gratitude to Great Britain for sheltering so many Belgian refugees in the Great War. Indeed the sculptor, Rousseau, was one himself. The inscription reads: “To the British nation from the grateful people of Belgium, 1914–1918.”

Lord Curzon in 1920 was still in office: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. However, at the turn of the century he had been Viceroy and Governor-General of India and has an impressive array of titles, decorations and qualifications; so the Belgian Prime Minister was not being short-changed: George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC, FRS, FBA.

Anglo-Belgian Memorial, Brussels.

In return, another Anglo-Belgian Memorial was put up in Brussels in 1923. It depicts a British and a Belgian soldier and commemorates the support given to British POWs in the war by Belgians. It is austere, unlike its London counterpart. The former reflects the grim war years; the latter depicts optimism for the future.

 

2 comments

  1. Surely Lord Curzon was Foreign Secretary in 1920? (He had served as the Undersecretary before being appointed to the Viceroyalty in 1898.)

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