The lifesize statue is mounted on top of a one metre high plinth. It shows Brockway in a suit and tie with his right hand held high. In his left hand he is holding some books and papers and he is peering through his glasses at the people he is addressing.
The front of the plinth is inscribed:
"Fenner Brockway / President of Liberation / Born 1 November 1888 / Died 28 April 11 1988 / Erected by the GLC / in honour of his / untiring efforts for peace and / racial equality / 25 July 1985"
The rear of the plinth is inscribed:
"Reinstated 1988 by Irene Chamberlain and others in memory of W.J. Chamberlain and all opponents of war, and also of Joan Hymans".
The statue was unveiled on 25th July 1985 by Michael Foot MP. It is one of a handful of statues, in London, to be erected whilst the person depicted was still alive. Brockway attended the unveiling.
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Archibald Fenner Brockway, was born in Calcutta, India, and attended the School for the Sons of Missionaries, Blackheath (now Eltham College) 1897-1905.
As editor of the Labour Leader, newspaper of the Independent Labour Party, he was arrested three times during the first world war, first for publishing seditious material, for which he was acquitted, second for distributing anti-conscription leaflets, for which he was jailed for two months after refusing to pay a fine, third for refusal to be conscripted, after being denied recognition as a conscientious objector, for which he was court-martialled and imprisoned until 1919.
During the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War he supported armed resistance to fascism, but continued to serve as Chair of the Central Board for Conscientious Objectors until his death.
He was a Labour MP for Leyton East 1929-31 and rejoined the Labour Party after the war to become MP for Eton and Slough from 1950-64 and then accepted a life peerage.
He was a founding member of the charity War on Want and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He proposed legislation to end racial discrimination and chaired the Movement for Colonial Freedom. He was a member of the advisory council of the British Humanist Association.
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