Sir Hans Sloane - London, UK - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea website [visit link] tells us:

"Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) has been commemorated in many street names in Chelsea, but until recently there has been no public statue to one of Chelsea’s greatest benefactors. Sloane was a polymath; a noted physician, scientist and collector. Born in Killileagh, Ireland in 1660, he moved to London in 1679 first studying chemistry and later medicine. A life long interest in botany culminated in two great legacies, a secure future for the Chelsea Physic Garden and his plant collection which eventually became the founding core of the Natural History Museum. Perhaps less well known is his discovery of the medical properties of chocolate, which he was introduced to in Jamaica. Mssrs Cadbury, in the nineteenth century, manufactured chocolate using Sloane’s recipe. In 1712 he purchased the Manor of Chelsea, consisting of some 166 acres including Henry VII’s manor house, from 2nd Lord Cheyne for £2,500 He retired to live there in 1741 with his extensive collections, which had become a major attraction. He offered his entire ‘museum’ to the nation for a nominal price. After his death the necessary funds were raised by lottery and the items housed in Bloomsbury, thus becoming the nucleus of the British Museum. The eastern part of his estate was inherited by his younger daughter, Eliza, who was married to Charles, 2nd Lord Cadogan. By 1821 the Cadogan family owned the reunited estate.

It is therefore wholly appropriate that the Royal Borough and the Cadogan Estate have jointly commissioned a new statue of Sir Hans Sloane for Sloane Square. Earlier in the late 1980s, at the suggestion of Jill, Duchess of Hamilton supported by many Chelsea residents, a replica of Rysbrack’s statue for the Chelsea Physic Garden was erected on a temporary wooden plinth in Sloane Square, opposite the entrance to Peter Jones. Unfortunately the copy, made of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), was very dilapidated and the facial features eroded and so it was subsequently removed.

The sculptor chosen for the new work was the master carver, Simon Smith. After serving an apprenticeship at Woburn Abbey, Smith went on to study stone carving and sculpture at City and Guilds London School of Arts, where he obtained a first. He now teaches traditional stone carving techniques there on a part time basis and has a studio in Beeson Road, Peckham. Here he carries out commissioned work, including figurative sculpture, historical ornament and restoration and some contemporary work. The full length figure of Sir Hans has been carved in Portland stone, on a plinth and base of the same material, and is modelled on the original Rysbrack statue, now kept in the British Museum. The opportunity was taken to create a restored face, based on the terracotta bust by Rysbrack, also in the British Museum. The paving stones surrounding the tall plinth are to be inscribed with key points of Sir Hans Sloane’s career and his major contributions to the Royal Borough and the nation.

Before the work was completed, proposals for the renewal, revitalising and pedestrianisation of Sloane Square came into the public arena. Until the decision is finalised and the necessary works completed, a temporary site has been given by the Cadogan Estate in Duke of York Square."