Machine Gun Corps Memorial
| Machine Gun Corps Memorial | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
 |
|
| For Machine Gun Corpsmen who died in World War I | |
| Unveiled | 1925 |
| Location |
51°30′12″N 0°09′03″W / 51.5032°N 0.1508°WCoordinates: 51°30′12″N 0°09′03″W / 51.5032°N 0.1508°W London, United Kingdom |
| Designed by | Francis Derwent Wood |
The Machine Gun Corps Memorial, also known as The Boy David, is a memorial to the casualties of the Machine Gun Corps in the First World War. It is located on the north side of the traffic island at Hyde Park Corner in London, near the Wellington Arch, an Equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, the Royal Artillery Memorial, the New Zealand War Memorial, and the Australian War Memorial.
The central column of light grey Mazzona marble is topped with a 9 feet (2.7 m) high bronze statue of a nude David by Francis Derwent Wood. The beautiful youth stands in a classical contrapposto pose, with one hand on his hip and the other resting on Goliath's oversized sword. To either side, on a lower flaking plinth of the same marble, is a bronze model of a Vickers machine gun, wreathed in laurels (some sources state that the Vickers guns are real examples, cased in bronze, but the official English Heritage listing casts doubt on that suggestion).
The inscription on the main column reads: ERECTED TO / COMMEMORATE / THE GLORIOUS / HEROES / OF THE / MACHINE GUN / CORPS / WHO FELL IN / THE GREAT / WAR, and then below, a Biblical quotation from 1 Samuel 18:7: "Saul has slain his thousands / but David his tens of thousands". The plinths to either side bear the dates MCMXIV and MCMXIX. A further inscription on the rear records that the Machine Gun Corps was formed in October 1915 and disbanded in 1922; in that time, some 11,500 officers and 159,000 other ranks served in the Corps, of whom 1,120 officers and 1,671 other ranks were killed, and 2,881 officers and 45,377 other ranks wounded, missing or prisoners-of-war. The high casualty rate of the Corps, nearly 30%, arose from the exposed position from which it typically fought, leading to its nickname, "The Suicide Club".
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