Statue of Charles Rolls

A bronze statue of Charles Rolls stands in Agincourt Square, Monmouth, Wales, in front of the Shire Hall. The figure is eight feet high and shows Rolls inspecting an incomplete model of his biplane. A pink granite plinth supports the statue, which is listed at Grade II*. Sir William Goscombe John designed the bronze figure and Sir Aston Webb designed the plinth. Charles Rolls was the third son of John Rolls, the first Baron Llangattock, whose family home was The Hendre north of Monmouth. The statue was proposed in June 1910 to mark Rolls’s double crossing of the English Channel, but he died the following month in an aeroplane accident near Bournemouth. The inscription on the plinth records his achievements and the public subscription that paid for the memorial. The statue was cast at A. B. Burton’s Thames Ditton Foundry, which also made the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus. It was unveiled on 19 October 1911 by Colonel Lord Raglan before a large crowd of dignitaries and townspeople. The plinth carries bronze plaques and the main dedication in capital letters, honouring Rolls’s pioneering work in motoring and aviation.