George II - Golden Square, London, UK - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

The plinth and statue are both made from Portland stone and the passage of time has not been kind to the statue.

The statue is by John Nost the elder and was erected in 1753, but had actually been made 33 years previously for the Duke of Chandos. It is badly corroded (it has been suggested that this is due to over-zealous cleaning) and the right hand is damaged.

The statue is a bit less than lifesize but, given the 250 years that have passed it may have been lifesize at the time of sculpting.

Given that George II was a monarch and Baron Chandos was a peer the garb selected seems most strange.. On first looks it looks like a Roman statue. The figure is wearing what can only be described as a mini skirt with a bit of a paunch hanging over its top (see photos). Around his waist is a type of belt that is holding the sword on his left hip. His left hand is on the hilt of the sword. He then appears to be bare chested with a robe over his shoulders reaching to the ground behind him. He is also wearing a pair of open roed sandals that extend to the top of his calf. On his head is an arrangement of some plant leaf probably laurel.

The statue has the simple carved inscription "Georgivs / II".

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He was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was famous for his numerous conflicts with his father and, subsequently, with his son. As king, he exercised little control over policy in his early reign, the government was controlled by Great Britain's parliament. He was the last British monarch to lead an army in battle (at Dettingen, in 1743).

The King had developed an aortic aneurysm, in an "incipient" stage, but the direct cause of death was a ruptured right ventricle. The lacerability of the King's tissues, and the dilatation of the pulmonary artery to which Nicholis alludes, were attributed by writer Clifford Brewer to syphilitic infection: "Aneurysms of the aorta and the rupture of a ventricle (heart) are commonly syphilitic in origin."

The King was buried in Westminster Abbey on 11 November and was succeeded by his grandson, George III.

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