Wargrave local history society’s April meeting saw Mike Cooper revealing more about Maiwand: the battle and the Great Game.
The Maiwand lion statue stands in Reading’s Forbury Gardens. It is well-known, and is seen as more just a memorial to those of the 66th Berkshire Regiment who died in the second Afghan war.
It has also been part of the local football club away strip, has been a symbol for Reading Library, and became a symbol of unity following the stabbings that took place nearby.
The lion itself is hollow, and was made of cast iron in nine pieces weighing 16 tonnes.
The £1,088 that it cost (which equates to about £105,000 in today’s values) was raised by public subscription in 1886. The monument was designed by George Blackall Simonds, of the local brewery family.
Mike explained that the battle of Maiwand in July 1880 was part of a long-standing conflict in the region between the Russians and British India – known as the Great Game.
