The Abbey
Selby Abbey was founded in 1069 as a monastery. Unusually the building was left untouched after the dissolution of Monasteries by King Henry VIII, but it was left empty. In 1618 it became the Parish Church of Selby but over time had a variety of damage caused by various issues including subsidence, and a fire.
Between 1871 and 1890 the building was restored but then in 1906 a second fire severely damaged the church including the collapse of the roof.
The church was again rebuilt and re-opened in 1909.
There are a number of statues both inside the church and in niches on the outside walls. None of them are named but during the Covid lockdown period of 2020 - 2021 a project was carried out to create online documents about the artwork in the abbey and on the exterior.
The project could only identify two of the statues, both of which were added after the 1906 fire and flank the west front door.
This statue is of King George V, the reigning monarch at the time the building was restored.
King George V
"George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Queen Victoria, George was third in the line of succession behind his father, the Prince of Wales, and his own elder brother, Prince Albert Victor. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, until the unexpected death of his elder brother in early 1892 put him directly in line for the throne. On the death of his grandmother in 1901, George's father became King-Emperor of the British Empire as Edward VII, and George was created Prince of Wales. He became king-emperor on his father's death in 1910.
George V's reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. As a result of the First World War (1914–1918), the empires of his first cousins Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany fell, while the British Empire expanded to its greatest effective extent. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment. In 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had smoking-related health problems throughout much of his later reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII."
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The Statue
The statue shows the King in a standing position wearing his imperial robes and the Star of India round his neck. He is holding a sword vertically and resting on the ground in his left hand. At his feet there is symbolically his crown.
The statue is identified as item 2 in the online document about the church's artwork.
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