Statue of Queen Victoria - Christchurch - Monarchs of the World on Waymarking.com

The statue of Queen Victoria commemorates three important events in the history of Canterbury. The statue is a jubilee memorial to Queen Victoria (1819-1901). The reliefs on the lower level of the pedestal observe the fiftieth anniversary of the landing of the pioneers in Lyttelton in 1850. There are also reliefs to commemorate Canterbury's association with the Boer War in South Africa, honouring those that died in service. Further up the pedestal there are reliefs containing figures symbolic of the province's prowess in art, industry and education.

The statue was unveiled on 25 May, 1903, the date of Queen Victoria's birthday which was observed as Empire day. When the statue was unveiled in 1903 it was incomplete. A year later two levels of bronze relief panels were added to the pedestal and the statue was presented to the public a second time on 7 April, 1904.

The bronze cast statue was produced by Francis John Williamson, the English sculptor with the promotional self title; 'Queen's Sculptor'. Although the The Press describes the statue as "an original designed expressly for Canterbury" Mark Stocker has noted that not less than nine replicas were made from a master version, and Stocker includes Christchurch as host to one of these reproductions.
What makes the Christchurch statue unique are the pedestal reliefs.

It was noticed a few days after the statue of Queen Victoria was installed that the cry of a cat was emanating from inside. Before the statue had been erected it had lain on the ground where a cat had made a home inside the hollow figure. So Queen Victoria had to be hoisted off her pedestal while the cat was enticed out with a smelly fish!


Victoria, born May 24, 1819, was the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Edward died when Victoria was but eight months old, upon which her mother enacted a strict regimen that, shunned the courts of Victoria's uncles, George IV and William IV. She married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840; the union produced four sons and five daughters. She died at eighty-one years of age on January 22, 1901, after a reign of sixty-three years.

Monarch Ranking: King / Queen Proper Title and Name of Monarch: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India. Country or Empire of Influence: United kingdom and Colonies Website for additonal information: [Web Link]

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