Statue of Queen Victoria

1894

Sculptor: Charles Bell Birch (1832–1893)

Commissioned to commemorate Queen Victoria

Bronze, on granite pedestal

Adelaide, Australia

The death of Queen Victoria prompted widespread feelings of bereavement. As the Athenaeum put it, her passing “cast a gloom over the whole Empire.” On February 2, 1901, as the queen’s funeral procession reached Frogmore Mausoleum in Windsor, UK, a day of mourning was observed. Statues that had been commissioned to proclaim Victoria’s presence in the world were transformed temporarily into signs of her absence and the end of an era.

The statue in Adelaide was draped in royal purple and bedecked with floral tributes, making it an icon of mourning. It had been a gift to the city from Sir Edwin Smith, a former mayor of Adelaide, and is a copy of the statue made for Udaipur, India, by Charles Bell Birch. Placed in Victoria Square, the statue presided over the most prominent public site in the city. A plan printed in the South Australia Register on the day of the unveiling shows how the space was organised for the grand event, with a prominent military and naval presence.

Related Media

"Queen’s Statue, Victoria Square, Adelaide, on the day of the Queen’s Funeral" "Queen’s Statue, Victoria Square, Adelaide, on the day of the Queen’s Funeral." [Photograph by Terence McGann. State Library of South Australia, Pictorial Collection, B 3940. http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/04000/B3940.htm]

Unveiling by Sir Edwin Smith, former Mayor of Adelaide, and Lady Smith. August 11, 1894 Unveiling by Sir Edwin Smith, former Mayor of Adelaide, and Lady Smith. August 11, 1894. [State Library of Australia; http://www.catalog.slsa.sa.gov.au/record=b2067559.]

"To-Day’s Ceremony: Sketch of the Ceremony’: street plan of the unveiling ceremony, August 11, 1894, Adelaide, Australia, South Australian Register (August 11, 1894), p. 6. "To-Day’s Ceremony: Sketch of the Ceremony’: street plan of the unveiling ceremony, August 11, 1894. [South Australian Register (August 11, 1894), p. 6. http://www.nla.gov.au/]