Machine Gun Corps Memorial

The memorial was originally erected next to Grosvenor Place, near Hyde Park Corner, and unveiled on 10 May 1925 by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. Four former members of the Corps who received the Victoria Cross – Arthur Henry Cross, Reginald Graham, Allan Ker, and William Allison White – placed a wreath after a dedication by the Chaplain-General to the Forces Alfred Jarvis. The memorial was controversial, as some interpreted the beautiful statue with its accompanying Vickers guns, and the reference to slaying hundreds and thousands, as glorifying war. There were letters in The Times and discussion in the House of Commons. Despite these interpretations, Derwent Wood wanted…

The central column of light grey marble is topped with a 9 ft high bronze statue of a nude David by Francis Derwent Wood. The beautiful youth stands in a classical contrapposto pose, with one hand on his hip and the other resting on Goliath's oversized sword. To either side, on a lower flanking plinth of the same marble, is a bronze model of a Vickers machine gun, wreathed in laurels (some sources state that the Vickers guns are real examples, cased in bronze, but the official English Heritage listing casts doubt on that suggestion). The inscription on the main column reads: , and then below, a Biblical quotation from 1 Samuel 18:7: "Saul has slain his thousands/ but David his tens of…