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Berkshire South East England Forbury Gardens |
Maiwand Lion |
George Simonds
H. Young & co. (London) 1884 |
Lion made of cast iron and weighing 16 tons - one of the biggest cast iron statues in the world - erected to commemorate the deaths of 329 men from the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot during the campaign in the Second Anglo-Afghan War in Afghanistan between 1878 and 1880. Named after one of the principal battles of that war, the Battle of Maiwand (27 July 1880).
The lion was originally supported on a terracotta pedestal. This was replaced with granite when the terracotta showed signed of cracking under the statue's weight.
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THIS MONUMENT RECORDS THE NAMES and COMMEMORATES THE VALOUR and DEVOTION OF XI OFFICERS and CCCXVIII NON.COM. OFFICERS and MEN of THE LXVI BERKSHIRE REGIMENT WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY AT GIRISHK MAIWAND and KANDAHAR and DURING THE AFGHAN CAMPAIGN MDCCCLXXIX – MDCCCLXXX. history does not afford any grander or finer instance of gallantry and devotion to queen and country than that displayed by the lxvi regiment at the battle of maiwand on the xxvii july mdccclxxx. DESPATCH OF GENERAL PRIMROSE. |
ERECTED in MDCCCLXXXIV by RESIDENTS in BERKSHIRE AND BY THE COMRADES and FRIENDS OF THOSE WHOSE NAMES ARE HERE RECORDED |
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