Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford - Kerkyra, Corfu, Greece
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fi67
N 39° 37.454 E 019° 55.549
34S E 407806 N 4386603
A statue of Frederick North, 5. Earl of Guilford, the founder of the first modern Greek university in Kerkyra.
Waymark Code: WMFKAP
Location: Greece
Date Posted: 10/29/2012
Views: 12
This statue is located at the western border of the municipal park of Kerkyra. It is a slightly over life-size marble statue of Lord Guilford in ancient Greek clothing sitting on a chair and holding a closed book in his left hand.
The name Guilford in Greek letters ("ΓΚΙΛΦΟΡΔ") is at the front of the statue. The pedestal made from another stone has a larger Greek inscription but is partially fainted and cannot be read completely.
From Wikipedia (
visit link) : "Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford (7 February 1766 – 14 October 1827), styled The Honourable Frederick North until 1817, was a British politician and colonial administrator.
North was a younger son of Prime Minister Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (usually referred to as Lord North). He represented Banbury in Parliament from 1792 to 1794 and served as Governor of Ceylon from 1798 to 1805. The first British governor, Frederick North (1798–1805), proclaimed in 1801 that all rajakariya (royal service) was abolished and replaced it with a tax of one-fifth of their produce on low land and one-tenth on high land. Frederick North built the House of Doric near the Mannar sea according to his plan and He himself and used to supervise pearl fishery which gained a substantial income those days to the western. North declared himself head of the salagama caste and appointed Robert Arbuthnot head of the karava caste; the Judicial Charter limited the governor’s autocracy by establishing the Supreme Court and High Court of Appeal.
In 1817 he succeeded his elder brother as fifth Earl of Guilford.
In 1824 North established the Ionian Academy on the island of Corfu, which was under British control as part of the United States of the Ionian Islands. It was the first University to be established in Modern Greece. The academy has now closed but a statue of the Earl stands on the island. Also a library and a street are named after him.
In 1791, he converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church and became an ardent adherent.
Lord Guilford died childless in October 1827, aged 61, and was succeeded in his titles by a cousin."
The Ionian Academy closed in 1864 after the union of the Ionian Island with Greece, because the young state could not afford two universities and concentrated on the one in Athens. In 1984 the Ionian University was founded, it is partially located in the same building as its early predecessor.