1932, bronze on Cornish granite, by Charles Hartwell (1873-1951)
The young girl is tenderly holding a kid goat under one arm. Clearly the pathos here is intended. The inscription on the pedestal reads: to all the protectors of the defenceless. The sculpture was erected in honour of Harold and Gertrude Baillie Weaver
(humanitarians and animal welfare campaigners) by the National Council for Animal Welfare, which they were instrumental in founding. As Gertrude Colmore she wrote Suffragette Sally in 1908, and The Life and Death of Emily Davison, as well as novels about suffering of animals.
The work was originally unveiled by George Lansbury (leader of Labour Party 1931-35 and teetotaler) in 1932 . As Commissioner of Works appointed by Ramsay MacDonald, he was in charge of historic buildings and monuments and did a radical programme of recreational improvements for the public in the royal parks – including the Lido on the Serpentine. The work was originally intended to be near a playground in Primrose Hill or even Greenwich Park but was finally placed in the outer rim of the Secret Garden in 1994. The sculptor, Charles Hartwell, like Pegram, worked for Thorneycroft. He was also commissioned to create the sculpture of St George and the Dragon, near St. John’s Wood church.
