The bronze statue of Major General Sir Henry Havelock

Major General Sir Henry Havelock stands in Trafalgar Square, one of four statue plinths occupying the open expanse. This is the story of a soldier whose battles in the Indian Mutiny of 1857 left a lasting tribute in the heart of London.

Havelock was born in 1795 and fought in the First Anglo-Burmese War in the 1820s. His most notable actions came during the Indian Mutiny in 1857, where he recaptured Cawnpore and Lucknow shortly before he died of dysentery.

The bronze statue of Havelock by the sculptor William Behnes stands in Trafalgar Square in London, United Kingdom. It occupies the plinth to the southeast of Nelson's Column. The statue was erected by public subscription in 1861 on a granite plinth, matching the statue of General Charles James Napier erected to the west in 1855–1856. A copy in Mowbray Park in Sunderland was also erected by public subscription and unveiled in 1861.

In 1936, it was suggested that the statues of Generals Havelock and Napier should be replaced by statues of Admirals Beatty and Jellicoe, the naval commanders at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. However, a place was eventually found for bronze busts of the Edwardian admirals against the north wall of the square, without removing the statues of the Victorian generals from their plinths.

Trafalgar Square is itself Grade I listed, while the monument became a Grade II listed building in 1970.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons