The Gladstone Monument, Gladstone Way (E Side)

Heritage listing

Reason for designation: Included for special architectural interest as a striking example of commemorative sculpture and for special historic interest as commemorating one of Britain’s outstanding Prime Ministers. Group value with St. Deiniol s Library and the neighbouring war memorial. History: Designed by John Hughes as one of 3 statues commissioned by the National Gladstone Memorial Committee in 1910. It was intended for the city of Dublin as the Irish National Memorial. Declined by the city council, it was instead presented to St. Deiniol s Library. It was erected in 1925. William Gladstone (1808-1898) was a Member of the UK Parliament from 1832 to 1894 and served as Prime Minister for twelve years. He is the only Prime Minister to have served four terms. He was born in Liverpool the son of John Gladstone (1764-1851), a sugar merchant and plantation owner who was one of the largest owners of enslaved people in Britain’s colonies of Guiana and Jamaica. He entered Parliament in 1833, aged 23. At this time he supported emancipation but argued for apprenticeships to be served before enslaved persons were freed, and for the financial compensation of slave-owners (his father received the largest individual payment as the owner of 2508 slaves). By 1850, Gladstone described slavery as “‘by far the foulest crime that taints the history of mankind” and he used import taxes on slave-produced sugar to encourage other countries to abolish it. He also opposed the lucrative opium trade and objected to Britain’s Opium Wars against China. One of the great reforming Prime Ministers of Victorian Britain, Gladstone created the secret ballot, legalised trade unions and extended voting rights so that the majority of adult men were allowed to vote in Parliamentary elections. He passed the

From Cadw under OGL v3.