OurStory

On July 8th 1953 the Kingsley Fairbridge Memorial statue was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in the presence of the Mayor of Umtali Mr. Harry Went and other local dignitaries.

In the first of these two photographs are the Queen Mother with Kingsley Fairbridge's widow Mrs Ruby Fairbridge, and Princess Margaret being greeted on arrival for the unveiling of the memorial.
__________________________________________________________________________________

The second photograph features Mrs Ruby Fairbridge and the Princess Margaret at the site of the statue on Christmas Pass on the approach into the town of Umtali. The statue was removed in 1982 to a site in the grounds of Utopia, the Fairbridge family home in the (now) city of Mutare. (Note the image of the statue on the program in the Princess' hands).

__________________________________________________________________________________

For those interested in the man behind the statue, here is a brief biography of sculptor William McMillan RA, (seen below in 1936, at work on a sculpture called The Naked Truth for for the Chelsea Arts Ball).

William McMillan was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied at the Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen and then the Royal College of Art, 1908-12. In the 1914-1919 war he served in the 5th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. McMillan was awarded the British and Victory Medals, which he had designed, his design having been chosen by a committee consisting of representatives of the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Sculptors, the British Museum, the National Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Royal Mint. He was also awarded the 1915 Star and the Silver War Badge. His first Royal Academy exhibits from 1917 were of military subjects and McMillan sculpted First World War memorials for Manchester and Aberdeen. In the later 1920's he carved much decorative garden sculpture, and experimented with unusual stones, such as green slate and verde di Prato. He became elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1925, Royal Academician in 1933, and was the Master of the Sculpture School at the Academy from 1929-41. He was also elected ARBS in 1928, and FRBS in 1932. In 1931, his three-quarter-length figure of Venus was purchased for the Tate Gallery from the Royal Academy. Early portrait statues include Earl Haig for Clifton College (1932), Sir William Goodenough in Mecklenburgh Square (1936), and a statue of George V (1938) in Kolkata India. From 1942 onwards, he exhibited drawings and watercolours at the Royal Academy. After The War, McMillan worked alongside Charles Wheeler on Sir Edward Maufe's extensions to the Royal Navy Memorials at Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth. In London remain several of his works, of which the most well known is the East Fountain in Trafalgar Square (1948). He also did the bust of Admiral Beatty there (1948). Another fountain by him is the Goetze Memorial Fountain, with Triton and Dryads, in Regents Park (1950). A grouped portrait statue of Kingsley Fairbridge, his companion Jack and his dog Vic (Vixen) was commissioned by citizens of the town and erected in Umtali Rhodesia (1953). His memorial statue of Manchester airmen Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Brown was commissioned for London Airport – now Heathrow - (1955). There also is George VI on Carlton House Terrace (1955), overlooking The Mall, and a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh first sited in Whitehall (1959) now at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. An unconventional Lightning Conductor by McMillan is the golden figure on one foot atop Kensington Town Hall (1960). More conventional is Viscount Lord Trenchard on the Victoria Embankment (1961) with Thomas Coran in Brunswick Square (1963), and Charles Rolls and Henry Royce at Rolls Royce, 65 Buckingham Gate, (re-sited here in 1978). In the Royal Academy on the staircase is his statue of the artist Turner. McMillan died in hospital just after his 90th birthday. Sadly an assault and robbery in the street had left him badly injured.

Grateful thanks to Jan Churchill, Old Fairbridgians Museum Co-Ordinator for the unveiling pictures from their archives.

Footnote : My history masters at UBHS (Messrs Hummel, and Mr Bev Davidge) would be shattered to find me having anything to do with history. It was my one "O" Level failure! Like Einstein "I refuse to clutter my head with facts while the world had perfectly good libraries" ... (and today an Internet ;-)