Enterprise – Liverpool, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 24.325 W 002° 59.819
30U E 500200 N 5917371
3 female figures on this memorial are used to represent a shipping magnate’s life and city of work.
Waymark Code: WMD9A0
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/08/2011
Views: 5
The memorial is dedicated to Sir Alfred Lewis Jones (1845 - 13 December 1909) who started his career as an apprentice in African Steamship Company at Liverpool. At the age of 26 he bought some sailing vessels and started trading in his own account.
About 10 years later he realised that steamships were likely to replace sailing ships and so sold his fleet and joined Messrs. Elder, Dempster & Co. who had bought the company he worked for originally.
The business expanded and helped to develop trade links with West Africa, the West Indes and the Canary Islands. During this time he introduced bananas into the UK, his boats becoming known as ‘the banana boats’. In the early 1900s Alfred Jones also had a monopoly on the Congo-Antwerp mail traffic.
He also founded the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. This school went on to discover that it was the anophiles mosquito that transmits Malaria.
The monument stands on an Aberdeen Granite base and is an English Heritage Grade II listed building.
There are 2 seated bronze figures on the sides of a plinth also made of Aberdeen Granite and this is surmounted by a standing female figure representing Liverpool.
Liverpool
The standing figure at the top represents the City of Liverpool. She is wearing a crown and a tabard that shows the coat of arms of Liverpool.
In her left hand she holds a boat on top of a globe to represent Liverpool’s international trade.
The Fruits of Industry
On the left hand side of the memorial is the female figure representing the ‘Fruits of Industry’. In her right hand and lap she has a number of different exotic fruits representing trade with Africa and the West Indes. In her left hand she has a Caduceus, the staff of the messenger gods Hermes and Mercury with twin intertwined snakes and wings at the top.. I think this likely represents the mail trade between the Congo and Antwerp. However this symbol is sometimes confused with the symbol for medicine, a rod with only a single snake and no wings.
This website http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/frampton/49.html states that the Caduceus represents medicine, but I’m sure Sir George Frampton R.A., P.R.B.S, the sculptor, was classically trained and would have understood the significance of the particular symbol that he used.
Research
On the right hand side of the memorial is the female figure representing Research. She has an open book in her lap and a microscope in her right hand.
This figure represents Jones’s involvement with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: ENTERPRISE
Figure Type: Human
Artist Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: Sir Alfred Lewis Jones
Date created or placed or use 'Unknown' if not known: 7/5/1915
Materials used: Bronze and Aberdeen Granite
Location: In front of the Liver Building at the Pier Head
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