Edinburgh & Glasgow Local Monuments |
| 1) The Call |
Location – Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
Typology –Commemorative War Memorial WW1
Construction / Completion Dates -
Freestanding seated military figure in traditional military dress raised on stone plinth with incised lettering. Bronze, figurative low relief to the rear of the figure.
Description -
Larger than life size, Scottish soldier on a plinth, with a low relief of soldiers preparing for war to the rear. Prominent stance with text on the plinth.
Artist – Robert Tait Mackenzie (1867-1938)
Urban – Prominent City centre position within Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh.
Rationale – Acknowledgement from USA for hospitality given to US troops during WW1. The relief to the rear of the statue shows the development of ordinary, working class men into soldiers fighting to protect their country. This shows “The Call” when men of all ages were called up to fight. It shows men marching with farm tools and, as it progresses from left to right, soldiers with weapons. The artist was a world-renowned academic, a scholar athlete, physician, physical educator, soldier, scouter and sculptor. He was considered to be of as much importance as the Greeks and when he died, his heart was buried below the monument because of his belief in his spiritual inheritance from the Greeks who believed the heart was the seat of the soul.
