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The artist John Foley died in 1874 before the work was completed and it was finished by his pupil, Thomas Brock. Gough is depicted on his horse, in the uniform of Colonel of the Guards, reviewing his regiment with his field-marshal’s baton in right hand. The horse's head was cast from Foley's statue of Viscount Hardinge, in Calcutta. The statue was originally sited in Phoenix Park, Dublin, where it was unveiled in 1878, witnessed by a young Winston Churchill. It suffered repeated vandalism and, on one occasion in 1944, the head was removed and thrown in the River Liffey. In 1957, it was actually dynamited off its plinth by the IRA. Dublin Corporation put it into storage for 29 years and finally sold it in 1986, on condition that it left Ireland.
Title
Field Marshall Viscount Hugh Gough (1779 –1869)
Date
c.1874–1878
Medium
bronze
Accession number
NE66_MA_S001
Acquisition method
purchased by public subscription
Work type
Equestrian
Owner
Chillingham Castle
Custodian
Chillingham Castle
Work status
extant
Unveiling date
22 February 1880
Access
time restrictions apply
Access note
castle opening times, but easily visible through the cast iron fence from the road
Inscription description
raised letters on the plinth: IN HONOR OF / FIELD-MARSHALL HUGH VISCOUNT GOUGH, K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I. / AN ILLUSTRIOUS IRISHMAN, / WHOSE ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE PENINSULAR WAR, IN CHINA, AND IN INDIA, HAVE ADDED LUSTRE / TO THE MILITARY GLORY OF HIS COUNTRY, WHICH HE FAITHFULLY SERVED FOR SEVENTY FIVE YEARS. / THIS STATUE [CAST FROM CANNON TAKEN BY THE TROOPS UNDER HIS COMMAND / AND GRANTED BY PARLIAMENT FOR THE PURPOSE] / IS ERECTED BY HIS FRIENDS AND COMRADES; on the opposite side of the plinth, in large raised letters: GOUGH