Robert Clive - London, UK
N 51° 30.138 W 000° 07.754
30U E 699239 N 5709592
This statue is located at the western end of King Charles Street on Clive Steps close to the Churchill War Rooms museum.
Waymark Code: WMH7CT
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/03/2013
Views: 16
The statue, that is a bit larger than life-size, is of Robert Clive or as many are taught in history lessons "Clive of India". The statue shows Clive standing and facing west over St James's Park. He is wearing military uniform and is bare-headed. His left hand rests on the hilt of a sword the point of which is on the ground. In his right hand he carries a scrolled document.
The statue stands atop a stone plinth that stands about three metres (ten feet) tall. On the front (west face) of the statue is inscribed:
Clive
1725 1774
Clive was 49 when he died by committing suicide. There was no inquest so the method he chose to end his successful life is not known with certainty.
The other three faces of the plinth carry bronze reliefs of three of Clive's Indian campaigns. They are inscribed, in the stone beneath them:
South Face: Clive at the seige of Arcot September to November 1751
North Face: Clive in the Mango Tope on the eve of Plassey June 22 1757
East Face: Clive receives the Grant of Bengal, Behar and Orissa at Alllahabad, August 1765.
The East India Company website tells us:
At the age of eighteen, Clive was sent out to Madras (now Chennai) as a “factor” or “writer” in the civil service of The East India Company. It was often the case that young men joined The East India Company to make their fortune; little did he know how far this journey was to take him. He entered the military service of The Company in 1744; he soon distinguished himself in the fighting against the French and their local allies. Clive’s brilliant capture of Arcot (1751) and the relief of the siege of Trichinopoly (1752) thwarted the French commander Dupleix , who had been on the verge of achieving French hegemony in Southern India.