A bronze statue of British naval officer

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte ( – 21 October 1805) was a Royal Navy officer whose leadership, grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics brought about a number of decisive British naval victories during the French ...

was installed at National Heroes Square (formerly Trafalgar Square) in

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the Parishes of Barbados, parish of Saint Michael, Barbados, Saint Mic ...

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

from 1813 to 2020. It has since been relocated to the Barbados Museum.

History

In 1805, Nelson and the British fleet had visited Barbados while pursuing the Franco-Spanish fleet in the lead-up to the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Na ...

. A bronze statue sculpted by Richard Westmacott was erected in his honour on 22 March 1813 in what became known as Trafalgar Square, and Barbados' Parliament Buildings were constructed nearby in the late 19th century. The statue was a prominent landmark, and it was depicted on several Barbadian

postage stamps A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the ...

issued between 1906 and 1964. Trafalgar Square was renamed National Heroes Square in 1999. As colonial symbol, the statue became increasingly controversial and wreath-laying ceremonies on the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar ceased. The monument was vandalised in November 2017 on the eve of

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...

celebrations, when blue and yellow paint was daubed on the statue and its plinth. A message describing Nelson as a "racist and white supremacist" was placed along the base. On June 7, 2020, a movement called Nelson Must Go was started by Barbadian Alex Downes, petitioning the Governemnt to remove the statue of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson from Heroes Square. The petition gained over 10 000 signatures, and on 24 July 2020, John King, the Minister with responsibility for Culture, announced that the statue would be removed during the national Season of Emancipation, which came to an end on 23 August. The removal was postponed in order to concentrate available funds on completing and opening a park in Saint Thomas, and eventually occurred on the International Day for Tolerance. The statue was rehoused in the Barbados Museum.

References

External links

* {{coord missing, Barbados 1813 sculptures Bronze sculptures in Barbados Monuments and memorials in Barbados

Outdoor sculptures in Barbados Sculptures by Richard Westmacott Sculptures of men in Barbados Statues removed in 2020 Vandalized works of art