From flesh and bone to bronze and stone : celebrating and commemorating the life of Queen Victoria in the British world 1897-1930

Abstract

Why is it that if you walk through many of the cities of the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Canada, New Zealand, or any part of what used to be the British world you will usually find at least one and sometimes more statues of Queen Victoria? In the last years of her life Queen Victoria enjoyed a special place in the hearts and minds of people across the world. At the turn of the twentieth century, Victoria was a celebrity above all others, charismatic, immensely popular and an almost untouchable icon. Strangely, Victoria gained this lofty status through her association with two very different, and it would seem conflicting ideas - imperialism and domesticity. This thesis investigates just how Queen Victoria gained that level of celebrity and then how it turned her from flesh and bone to bronze and stone in Britain and across the British world from 1897 to 1930. It argues that two events in particular are the key to this transformation. The first, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of 1897, transformed her in the eyes of the public into the representative figure of an entire age. The second, her death and funeral in early 1901, had such a public impact that it triggered the numerous commemorative efforts at home and abroad in the many years that followed. No work published to date has looked in detail at the historical significance of the celebration and monumental commemoration of Queen Victoria in the context of British and British imperial identity. This thesis aims to fill this gap in the work done so far on the imagery of Queen Victoria while also breaking new ground in considering just how her iconic status came into existence.