Erection date: 31/10/1960
{On the front of the plinth:}
Captain John Smith, citizen and cordwainer, 1580 - 1631, first among the leaders of the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia from which began the overseas expansion of the English speaking peoples.
{On the back, the arms of the City of London, and:}
This statue presented to the City of London by the Jamestown Foundation of the Commonwealth of Virginia was unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on Monday 31st October 1960.
{On the base of the statue:}
Roman Bronze Works Inc. N.Y.
{and:}
Wm. Couper
{From a modern information board:}
The statue was presented to the Corporation of London by the Jamestown Foundation of the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1960, and is a replica by Charles Rennick of an original by William Couper made in 1907. Smith, a colonial adventurer, was a Citizen and Cordwainer, and set sail from Blackwall to found the colony of Virginia in 1606. Following a period as the prisoner of the native Americans he became head of the settler's colony before returning to London in 1609-10. He was buried in St. Sepulchure's Holborn in 1631 where his gravestone can still be found. The statue was placed at this location as it was close to the old site of Cordwainers' Hall, and because the church of St. Mary le Bow was the setting for a number of sermons in furtherance of the colonisation of the New World in the early seventeenth century.
Site: Captain John Smith (1 memorial)
EC4, Bow Churchyard
We thank Jamie Davis for finding to the British Pathe news film of the unveiling, where we note that the statue is veiled by a flag showing the St George Cross, not the Union Jack which was the flag of choice for the statues of WW1 and WW2 heroes. The new flag was specified in a royal decree in 1606, the very year that Smith set sail. Deciding which flag to use for Smith's statue must have presented a ceremonial challenge.
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