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Full-length bronze statue of Gladstone on ornate hexagonal shaped granite pedestal. The statesman is shown in full modern clothing, waistcoat and topcoat. He is speaking in the House of Commons on the question of Home Rule.

Manester's outdoor statue of Gladstone was erected after his death. It origins were nor as might have been anticipated in a public subscription but in a legacy left by the Manchester architect and surveyor, William Roberts. Roberts was not to be numbered among the great architects of Victorian Manchester though over the years his bread-and-butter work enabled him to enjoy a comfortable living. He was Unitarian in religion and a Liberal in politics, an individual who had a strong admiration of Gladstone. The extent of that admiration was revealed to the public after his death in 1899, when Roberts, who had never married, left £4,500 out of an estate of over £23,000 to provide a bronze statue of Gladstone for Manchester. Manchester was supporting the scheme for a national memorial to Gladstone, but had not seriously considered raising its own memorial. It was Roberts' executors, James Green, Edward Rowland and Samuel Horrocks, who were responsible for carrying out his wishes. They invited a number of leading sculptors to present models for a statue and before making the final choice sought the opinions of members of Gladstone's family, including Herbert Gladstone and Rev. Stephen Gladstone. The outcome was that the commission was given to the London sculptor, Mario Raggi, whose model depicted Gladstone speaking in the House of Commons during a famous parliamentary occasion, the debate on the Irish Home Rule Bill in 1893. Raggi had been in the chamber during that decisive debate and sketched the prime minister as he presented his arguments in favour of the bill. Raggi had had no previous commissions in the city but having been a pupil of Matthew Noble one presumes that he may have worked on some Manchester sculpture. The question of the site for the statue was decided after discussions between the trustees and the city council. Although Roberts had expressed the hope that the statue might be placed on the Esplanade in Piccadilly, this was not regarded as suitable location by the council. Three other sites - the junction of Exchange Street and Market Street, junction of Mosley Street and Piccadilly, and junction of Portland Street and Piccadilly - were then considered but again ruled out. Finally, it was agreed to place the statue in Albert Square, next to the Oliver Heywood statue, thus balancing those of Bright and Fraser on the other side of the Albert Memorial. Raggi completed the model with relatively few problems. The casting was carried out by Singers of Frome.[recheck: or at Aberdeen foundry of J. Wright and Sons]. The unveiling ceremony in October 1901 was presented as a non-political event, honouring Gladstone the statesman and patriot rather than Gladstone the politician of Victorian Liberalism. Local Conservative and Liberal MPs stood and sat side by side during the ceremonies. It was the Conservative MP, Sir William Houldsworth, who introduced John Morley to unveil the statue. Morley, who was then working on what was to be his own monument - the three volume biography whose publication was to be the literary event of 1903 - to Gladstone, removed the coverings to reveal the 'Grand Old Man', who to the cheering Mancuanians was also a 'Lancashire Man'. But it was impossible to steer such an event into non-partisan channels though Morley's speech in the Great Hall of the Town Hall following the unveiling did try to strip the politics out of the man. It was an all but impossible task, not least in a room where Gladstone was already memorialised in marble. Party politics could not be forgotten. The Tory Manchester Courier, for one, could not resist reminding its readers that amidst the panegyrics many of the current problems facing the country, including the South African War, could be traced directly back to Gladstone's policies. The Liberal Manchester Guardian listed the great institutions, including a free press and elementary schools, which Gladstone had helped to shape. Raggi's representation of the 'Grand Old Man' was admired for the manner in which he had captured the expression of Gladstone and his pose as a public speaker which culminated in the forcefulness of the outstretched right arm. The sculptor's previous commissions included the statue of Benjamin Disraeli in Parliament Square, London. One pedantic observer however felt that the statue could be improved as Signor Raggi had not represented Gladstone true-to-life, having taken artistic license in restoring the finger on the statesman's left hand that had been lost in a shooting accident as a young man. Although Mancunians were sometimes overeager to claim that it was the first major memorial to be raised after Gladstone's death, this claim ignored other monuments including Adams Acton's marble Gladstone in Blackburn.

William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) was born in Liverpool, the son of Sir John Gladstone, a merchant and MP. He was educated at Eton and Oxford. His parliamentary career began in 1832 when he was elected as the Tory MP for Newark. He was a supporter of Peel and held a number of ministerial posts including Junior Lord of the Treasury in 1834 and President of the Board of Trade in 1843. His move to Liberalism began after the repeal of the Corn Laws and the death of Peel. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the coalition government of 1852. He became the dominant figure of Victorian Liberalism and was prime minister on four occasions: 1868-74, 1880-85, 1886 and 1892-94. The cause of Home Rule for Ireland became a major concern in his later political life. His first Home Rule Bill introduced in 1886 led to resignation and the return of the Conservatives to power. His second Home Rule Bill of 1893 was successful in the Commons but defeated in the Lords. Gladstone resigned as prime minister in 1894. He died at his home at Hawarden in 1898 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Gladstone had a long connection with Manchester visiting and speaking in the city on many occasions. In 1837 he was unsuccessful when standing as a Conservative candidate for one of the borough's two parliamentary seats. In 1893 he assisted in obtaining the title of Lord Mayor for the city's chief magistrate.The esteem Gladstoner was held in locally was shown when a statue was placed in the new town hall in 1879.

circa

raw year

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At risk

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Statue

Bronze

300cm high approx

Pedestal

Granite

304cm high x 280cm wide (at base)

Bird guano

Small amount on statue

None

None