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Royals gather as £2m Queen Mother statue is unveiled
Sri Carmichael24 Feb 2009
A NATIONAL memorial to the Queen Mother was unveiled near Buckingham Palace today.
The £2 million monument features a 9ft 6ins bronze statue of a smiling Queen Mother and two sculpture panels commemorating periods of her life.
It stands off The Mall in front of a statue of her late husband King George VI. The unveiling ceremony was attended by many senior members of the royal family, including the Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla and Princes William and Harry.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah were also present. Charles paid tribute to his "darling grandmother", praising the Queen Mother's "vitality, unbounded courage and determination" and her "irresistible and irrepressible sense of mischievous humour".
The Queen Mother died in 2002 aged 101. Her popularity saw more than one million people line the funeral route on a national day of mourning.
Philip Jackson, the sculptor who created the statue depicting the Queen Mother in the flowing robes of the Order of the Garter, said: "I had a faint smile playing on her lips. When you look at the photographs you seldom catch her without a smile on her face. She had a spark of life in her and I wanted to get that life into the work."
Artist Paul Day created the two 11ft-long bronze friezes. One shows the King and Queen visiting bombed-out Londoners during the war.
The other shows three episodes from the Queen Mother's life - meeting veterans, spending a day at the races and at her Scottish retreat, the Castle of Mey in Caithness. Mr Brown announced the creation of a permanent memorial to the Queen Mother in 2005 when he was Chancellor. It was funded by the sale of a £5 coin produced by the Royal Mint to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday.
After the unveiling the Queen and Duke met former members of the Queen Mother's household before attending a private reception for family and friends, hosted by Charles and Camilla.
Reader views (2)
Before you all start moaning about this being a waste of money,I'd rather some of my taxes fund this than
the likes of those true Brits Binyan Mohamed and co.
...and this is coming from someone who cannot stand the monarchy!
- Steve, London, 25/02/2009 09:15
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It is so refrshing to see a statue being unveiled in London that has real quality and dignity - we are so fed up of the ugly objects that masquerade as art cluttering our public spaces such as the Lovers at St Pancras or the nonsense piled onto the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square.
A fitting tribute to a woman brimming with real character and spirit (not least a copius consumption of her favourite G & T!).
- Thomas, London, 25/02/2009 08:13
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