Bartle Frere - Whitehall Gardens, London, UK
N 51° 30.342 W 000° 07.403
30U E 699630 N 5709986
This statue, of Bartle Frere, is one of three statues given a place in Whitehall Gardens that are along the Victoria Embankment in Central London. Frere's statue is the middle of the three.
Waymark Code: WMEF49
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/20/2012
Views: 3
This bronze statue, about 125% life-size,
stands atop a grey, granite pedestal that has a Portland stone base. The
pedestal has some bronze decoration and Bartle Frere's name carved on it. The
statue was sculpted by T Brock in 1887 as shown on the bronze base of the
statue. Bartle is shown wearing ceremonial robes and is holding a partially
opened scroll between his hands. He is bare headed and is looking slightly to
his right towards the Houses of Parliament.
The British Empire website (visit
link) tells us:
"'When a bully with a black hat and a
moustache is caught with a smoking gun in his hand, posses and juries don't ask
very penetrating questions. Frere was the sort of villain cinema audiences love
to hate, a sanctimonious, pig-headed, officious, self-righteous, ambitious city
slicker from out of town. One hundred years after the event there is no reason
to revise this estimate and award him a retrospective white hat and a shave.'
Norman Etherington is possibly the most vocal critic of Sir Bartle Frere, but he
is only the latest in a very long line. What is remarkable about this criticism
is the fact that there has not been a comprehensive biography of this 'bully in
a black hat' published since J.B. Martineau wrote one in 1895 - which is
astounding, given the level of interest in the Zulu War.
Frere was born in 1815 into a family of fourteen. He was educated at Bath and in
1834 went out to work for the East India Company in the Bombay presidency. In
1842 he was appointed private secretary to the Governor of Bombay and in 1847,
after a spell of leave in England and Italy, he was appointed Resident at
Sattara, a Native state south of Bombay. He was present at its annexation (under
Lord Dalhousie's Doctrine of Lapse) on the death of the Rajah (although he
personally opposed the annexation) and became the Commissioner for Sattara
thereafter. In 1850, at the age of 35, he was promoted to be Commissioner for
the newly pacified, but still unruly, province of Sind, with responsibility for
the strategically important Bolan Pass, a post he held for the next five years.
In 1856 he took sick leave and sailed for England, before returning to India in
March 1857. He played an active part in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny and
by 1865 had risen to become the Governor of Bombay, in which role he had more
experience of the North-West frontier as well as an active involvement in the
problems caused by the slave trade in East Africa and the Persian Gulf. By 1868
he was back in England, known as a leading 'India hand' and keen geographer, he
was proposed as, but declined the post of, President of the Geographical Society
(he was elected in his absence in 1873). His interest in the anti-slavery
movement prompted Lord Granville to send him out to Zanzibar in 1873 to
negotiate a treaty which would effectively outlaw the trade in East Africa and
the Persian Gulf. Success in Zanzibar raised him to the rank of Privy Councillor
and in 1876 he was given the further task of shepherding the Prince of Wales on
an Indian Tour, before Carnarvon finally asked him to take on the job of
Confederation in South Africa. The defeat at Isandhlwana and his subsequent
recall ended a brilliant career and he died, broken, in 1885."