Colonial careerists in Central Africa, 1888–1913: a survey of monuments in St Paul’s Cathedral

Abstract

This article considers a number of monuments in St Paul’s Cathedral dedicated to soldiers and administrators who served in various parts of Central Africa during the British colonial period, namely Sir Bartle Frere (1815–84), Lord Robert Cornelis Napier (1810–90), Major Arthur Blyford Thruston (1865–97), Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson (1843–1910) and Captain Sir John Hawley Glover (1829–85). It discusses the careers of these colonial agents in context, relating this, where appropriate, to the symbolic and material conditions of the monuments themselves. It considers the artists involved, their techniques of representation, and the architectural associations of the monumental form during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In conclusion, it suggests that the commemorative form represented in these monuments presents empire and imperial expansion as a modernizing enterprise.