Queen Alexandra’s memorial ©Carole Tyrrell
The memorial is set into the garden wall of Marlborough House which had been Queen Alexandra’s London home and was sculpted in bronze by Alfred Gilbert who also designed the Eros monument in London’s Piccadilly. Alix’s memorial was his last great work and he worked on it during 1926-1932. It was his biographer who brought him back to England after his scandalous flight to Bruges with creditors chasing after him. He had left the tomb of Alix’s son, the Duke of Clarence, unfinished after going wildly over budget. It’s in Prince Albert’s Chapel near St George’s Chapel in Windsor. The tomb was also in the Art Nouveau style and is wildly extravagant. The Duke lies on top of the tomb dressed in a Hussar uniform while above him a kneeling angel bends over him to place a crown upon his head. Alix never fully recovered from his death and kept the room in which he had died as a shrine. So Gilbert was an obvious choice for Alix’s memorial despite Edward loathing him. After 20 years of silence, it was presumed that Gilbert was dead. However, he had been living in Rome on a Civil List pension. But, despite his antipathy to Gilbert, Edward knighted him and made the Royal Academy re-admit him. And, finally, the missing figures in the Duke’s tomb were completed.
Alfred Gilbert by Frederick Hollyer 1887. Shared under Wiki Commons
Arthur Sanderson, drawing of the tomb of the Duke of Clarence, Prince Albert’s Chapel, near St George’s Chapel, Windsor. from Pinterest.
Queen Alexandra’s memorial has been adapted from Perpendicular Gothic architecture with 3 buttressed and pinnacled canopies over the 4 allegorical figures and linenfold motifs on the screen behind them. On either side of the central figure there are 2 more smaller figures; one holds a cross and represents Religion and the other has no attribute. The two pillars on either side of the figures have lamps in them at the top and I imagine the effect must be quite ghostly and mysterious at night.
The figure called ‘Religion’ ©Carole Tyrrell
The unattributed figure ©Carole Tyrrell
Faith ©Carole Tyrrell
Hope ©Carole Tyrrell
Love Enthroned ©Carole Tyrrell
I think it’s a Marmite statue in that you either love it or loathe it and, admittedly, it’s not for everyone. The four figures, all female, remind me almost of a Pieta as they surround a young girl whose arms are in the shape of a cross. I am indebted to the Victorian Web who quote Richard Dorment’s comments on the composition:
‘The four figures, all female, two of whom appear to be asleep, and three are crowned. In the central group, the crowned woman behind the young girl represents ‘Love Enthroned’ and she is supported by Faith and Hope on either side of her. She is directing a young girl on the cusp of womanhood setting out across the river of Life which springs from beneath her throne. This represented Alix’s charity to children and her coming to Great Britain across the water from Denmark.
The three crowned women are bowing and ministering to the young girl and the central figure draws out the child’s limp arms to form a cross.’ The Victorian Web, Richard Dorment
Dorment then goes onto compare elements of the memorial’s composition to the depiction of the Lamentation which is:
‘where three women who either attend the prostrate Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, or mourn over the body of the dead Christ at the Crucifixion.’
He also adds that:
‘Now we come to the girl whom he positions between the legs of the figure of Charity. In Renaissance painting the placement of an infant or adult between its parent’s knees symbolises parturition and therefore descent from the preceding generation: the placement of the child in the Alexandra monument implies that she is born from a Trinity of Faith, Hope and Charity and that the Queen, who possessed, all these virtues, has passed them on to a younger generation of women’
The Victorian Web, Richard Dorment
I think that it’s an interesting interpretation and I haven’t found any others with different meanings.
The memorial was described at its unveiling in 1932 as having ‘
‘A ghostly, neo Gothic appearance’
and
‘inspected from across the road, it was of great bronze doors to an Italian cathedral’
On the bronze base are the words:
‘a tribute of the Empire’s love 1925.’
and
‘Faith, Hope and Love. The Guiding Virtues of Queen Alexandra’
is inscribed on the granite base. and the memorial. in its enigmatic way, is a representation of it. When I visited a cut rose and a bunch of roses lay on top of it, presumably in tribute.
Inscription to Queen Alexandra ©Carole Tyrrell
There is a more conventional statue of Alix in the grounds of the London Hospital in Whitechapel. She was its President, was keenly involved in its work and was reputed to have visited the Elephant Man while he was a patient there. In 1904 she introduced the Finsen light cure for Lupus to England and presented the first lamp to the hospital. The statue was erected by the Friends in 1908. But I know which one I prefer.
Queen Alexandra memorial ©Carole Tyrrell
©Text and photos Carole Tyrrell unless otherwise stated.
References and further reading:
https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/queen-alexandra-statue
https://www.rct.uk/collection/people/queen-alexandra-of-the-united-kingdom-1844-1925#/type/subject
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7467/alexandra_of_denmark (info on children etc)
https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/imperial/display/33671-prince-and-princess-of-wales
https://cgregoryroses.com/princess-alexandra-potted-uk-rose -the Alexandra rose
https://www.nationaltrustimages.org.uk/image/552667
https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=45876 words to Ode written by John Masefield music by Elgar
https://www.hastings.gov.uk/parks_gardens_allotments/parks/alexandra/ Alexandra Park Hastings – details of opening
https://victorianweb.org/sculpture/gilbert/38.html
https://www.kat58.co.uk/the-marriage-of-the-prince-of-wales-with-princess-alexandra-of-denmark/ statue of Alexandra in Whitechapel within the ground sof the London Hospital
https://statues.vanderkrogt.net/object.php?webpage=ST&record=gblo194 useful quote
Queen Alexandra – SW1 : London Remembers, Aiming to capture all memorials in London
Caroline’s Miscellany: The guiding virtues of Queen Alexandra (carolineld.blogspot.com)
shadows fly away 