Statue of Queen Victoria

1897

Sculptor: Emanuel Edward Geflowski (1834-1898)

Commissioned for the Diamond Jubilee

Marble, on stone pedestal

Kingston, Jamaica

The unveiling of Emanuel Geflowski’s statue in the Parade Ground at Kingston was the climax of the city’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. This monument, a replica of the Golden Jubilee statue made for the Colonial Office in Singapore in 1887, bears the inscription “Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, and Supreme Lady of Jamaica.” Queen Victoria was popular with many former slaves and their descendants in Jamaica because British imperialists misleadingly emphasized the coincidence of her accession to the throne in 1837 and emancipation the following year. The Jubilee celebrations served to reinforce this image of the queen. Seven thousand children participated in the ceremony by singing “Rule, Britannia!” and were awarded medals bearing the queen’s profile. The song declares that Britons never shall be slaves and therefore had particular resonance in a post-slavery society.

Related Media

Unveiling by Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Jamaica, and Lady Blake, on June 22, 1897. Photo by Duperley and Son, published in The Queen’s Empire: A Pictorial and Descriptive Record, with an introduction by H.O. Arnold-Forster (London: Cassell, 1899), 47. Unveiling by Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Jamaica, and Lady Blake, on June 22, 1897. Photo by Duperley and Son, published in The Queen’s Empire: A Pictorial and Descriptive Record, with an introduction by H.O. Arnold-Forster (London: Cassell, 1899), 47.