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Description: | Full length standing male figure dressed in a tail coat, hands clasped together at his front holding a book. On a square bronze base mounted on a cylindrical granite plinth. Additional Information: Commemorates Leonard Bentall who commissioned the Hampton Court- inspired Maurice Webb building for Bentalls Store. Statue unveiled by the Hon. Roland Cubitt, Vice Lieutenant of Surrey who read the following statement: "As Napoleon learned to his cost, this country which he called 'a nation of shopkeepers' was a nation of shopkeepers possessed of matchless initiative and the courage of their convictions. Leonard Hugh Benthall was just such one of these. He was a local pioneer whose many charitable actions will long be remembered. In addition, he was a man of high adventure, with the ability to mould the materials at his hand into a great and prosperous business, instead of, as so many do, searching in other lands for an El Dorado paved with gold". The Mayor of Kingston, Mr. F.C. Digby described L.H.B. as " the man who made Kingston". | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Sculptor: Dick, William Reid | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=7147... | Go to resource |
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