Statue of Queen Victoria, St Helens

The Statue of Queen Victoria stands on the western side of Victoria Square, St Helens, Merseyside, England. It was created after the death of Queen Victoria and given to the town by Colonel William Windle Pilkington, mayor of St Helens in 1902, and a member of the Pilkington glass manufacturers in the town. Pilkington commissioned George Frampton to design it. Frampton used the same model for the figure of the queen for two other statues, but placed it on thrones and pedestals of different designs. The St Helens statue was unveiled by the Earl of Derby in 1905. Originally placed in the centre of Victoria Square, it was moved to a position on the west side of the square in 2000. The statue is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

Colonel William Windle Pilkington (1839–1914) was mayor of St Helens in 1902, the year of the Coronation of King Edward VII. Pilkington was the eldest son of Richard Pilkington, who had founded the Pilkington Brothers Glassworks in the town, and he was the technical director and chairman of the company. In order to celebrate his mayoralty, and to recognise the benefits the town had received during the life of Queen Victoria, who had died the previous year, Pilkington offered to give a statue of the queen to the town. He commissioned George Frampton to design it.

Frampton had previously been commissioned during the lifetime of the queen in 1898 by the Queen Empress Commemoration Fund to create a statue for Calcutta (now Kolkata) in India. This depicted Queen Victoria sitting on a throne, a concept inspired by the statue of the queen by Alfred Gilbert in 1887 for Winchester Castle. When Frampton's statue was unveiled in Calcutta by Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, he told Frampton that no future copies should be made of the statue. However, Frampton used the same idea, that of an enthroned queen, for Pilkington's commission, and he used the same model for casting statues in Leeds and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, placing the statues on thrones and pedestals of differing designs.

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