Missing items from George Square statues deemed 'inappropriate' won't be reinstated

A decision not to reinstate missing items on the statues of military figures in George Square has been made by council officials who deemed them inappropriate.

Concerns were raised at a recent committee meeting by councillor Graham Campbell, who doesn’t believe the city should be celebrating those who promoted slavery and oppressed others.

It comes as a paper on the redevelopment of George Square, which is part of the Avenues project, advising elected members on the improvements to the city’s most important civic square.

The proposals look to upgrade all surfaces, install sensory “play” areas, new seating and picnic stations, incorporate feature lighting and flexible event spaces as well as restore and conserve the statues and monuments.

During the meeting, councillor Graham Campbell said: “The report talks about conserving the statues and monuments and I am sure you will be aware of the controversy around two of the characters who have come out of the square.

“They are the military figures Colin Campbell and Sir John Moore. I don’t think anyone in this lifetime will have seen the statues fully with their swords.

“I understand that these statues were restored with bronze swords constructed and added back to the statue.

“I found that extraordinarily offensive because these swords were symbolic and representative of the two military figures who massacred Indians, Caribbeans and Africans in the service of the empire.

“Colin Campbell was condemned at the time in 1857 for his mass murdering.

“I don’t understand why we just didn’t restore the statue and conserve it as was and symbolically disarm it. My question is, who gave the instructions to restore it to its original condition, because I don’t understand why that was felt as necessary, as it would have added cost to this.

“I am making the point that I want those statues not to come back as I don’t think we should be celebrating the military history of the empire massacring people who were enslaved or oppressed.”

A council officer confirmed that a decision had been taken that the missing items would not be reinstated on the statues.

They said: “The restoring company had actually commissioned a new sword for one of the statues that was missing.

“They were doing that as part of what they saw as responsible conservation and restoration practice.

“When we were made aware of that it triggered an internal discussion and the decision was taken, for the reasons you have basically outlined, that it wouldn’t be appropriate to commission and invest any more in that type of military paraphernalia.

“Therefore, the decision has been taken not to do that.”

A further report is expected to be presented to the wellbeing committee about the potential removal of one or more statues from George Square or the introduction of “appropriate contextual interpretation material.

This will outline the facts and place the statue in a factually based context.