Bedford
Boer War Memorial

Places > Bedford > War Memorials > Boer War

The South African War Memorial, which stands in front of The Swan Hotel, was unveiled on the 2nd June 1904 by Lady  Cowper the wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire. According to some reports, the bronze statue of an infantry soldier in marching order was designed by Chevalier and commemorates the Bedfordshire men who died in the Boer War.

However, recent research has uncovered that almost certainly the sculptor was Leon Joseph Chavlliaud (1858-1919), a French sculptor working in England in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Sources:

• FARRAR, V.  Bedford 50 Years Ago: The architecture of a county town.2007
• Newspaper Cuttings Collection, Local Studies Library, Bedford Central Library

Bedford Boer War Memorial, by Bedfordshire Libraries, 2012

Page last updated: 22nd January 2014