Viscount Wolseley - Horse Guards Parade, London, UK
N 51° 30.298 W 000° 07.653
30U E 699344 N 5709893
Viscount Garnet Wolseley is one of only a few people honoured enough to have their statue cast on the great ceremonial grounds of Horseguards Parade in central London.
Waymark Code: WMC9VM
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/14/2011
Views: 21
Horse Guards Parade is where the national tradition of Trooping the Colour takes place and is attended by the Queen. Only a few people have statues in this area, all military men, and Wolseley is one of them.
The statue stands on top of a Portland stone plinth that has the simple inscription "Wolseley" on the front of it.
The statue, made of bronze and a little larger than life-size, shows Wolseley in the military uniform of a Field Marshall. Wolseley and the horse are both looking straight ahead. Wolseley is holding the reigns in his left hand and has a cane in his right hand. The reigns, bridle and saddle are shown in great detail as is the horse's mane and tail that are perfectly groomed.
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FM Garnet Joseph, Viscount Wolseley (1833-1913), the inspiration for the ‘very model of a modern major general’ in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Pirates of Penzance, Wolseley was popularly described by the Victorians as ‘Our Only General’. Lacking means to purchase his commissions, Wolseley sought to advance in the army through gallantry. In less than eight years he rose to brevet lieutenant colonel but at the cost of a severe leg wound in Burma and the loss of his left eye in the Crimea. His wider military reputation was established by publishing a practical guide to soldiering, The Soldier's Pocket Book, in 1869 and leading an expedition against a rebellion on Canada's Red River in 1870. He then commanded another expedition to punish the Ashanti in West Africa, his capture of their capital at Kumasi in February 1873 being rewarded with his major generalcy. He was British high commissioner in both Natal in 1875 and on Cyprus in 1879 before returning to South Africa to conclude the Zulu war in 1879. He became QMG of the army in 1880 and adjutant-general in 1882. His great military achievement was the occupation of Egypt in the latter year, culminating in the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. Wolseley was promoted general and elevated to the peerage as a result but, three years later, his relief expedition failed to reach Khartoum in time to rescue Charles Gordon from the dervishes. Advancement to a viscountcy was small consolation for failing to save his friend. He was promoted field marshal in 1894. Though a political conservative, Wolseley was regarded as dangerously radical in terms of his advocacy of military reform and his advancement was strongly opposed by the army's C-in-C, the Duke of Cambridge and his cousin, Queen Victoria. Wolseley's reliance on a small group of handpicked subordinates in his campaigns—the so-called Ashanti Ring—also bred resentment within the army among those excluded. Nevertheless, Wolseley became C-in-C in 1895 but ill health impaired his performance and he was blamed for the early failures of his protégés in the Second Boer War. He retired in 1900 and his influence contributed to the professionalization of the army that he had been too old to achieve.
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