Harold Wilson - Huddersfield, UK
N 53° 38.897 W 001° 47.029
30U E 580388 N 5945077
Two statues of Harold Wilson stand in prominent places.
This one, unveiled by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair in July 1999, stands outside Huddersfield railway station in St George's Square, Huddersfield.
Waymark Code: WMKWZQ
Location: North East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/05/2014
Views: 3
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British Labour Party politician.
Lord Wilson was born in Huddersfield in 1916. He became Labour leader in 1963, on the death of Hugh Gaitskell, and won the general election the following year.
He served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976. He won four general elections, and is the most recent British Prime Minister to have served non-consecutive terms.
He finally resigned as prime minister 1976, although he continued as an MP until 1983. He died in 1995.
Costing £70,000 the bronze statue, designed by sculptor Ian Walters, is based on photographs taken in 1964 and depicts Wilson in walking pose at the start of his first term as Prime Minister.
His widow, Mary requested that the eight-foot tall monument did not show Wilson holding his famous pipe as she feared it would make the representation a caricature.
In September 2006, Tony Blair unveiled a second bronze statue of Wilson in the latter's former constituency of Huyton, near Liverpool. The statue was created by Liverpool sculptor, Tom Murphy, and Blair paid tribute to Wilson's legacy at the unveiling, including the Open University. He added: "He also brought in a whole new culture, a whole new country. He made the country very, very different"
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