Richard Southwell Bourke, the 6th Earl of Mayo, served as the Viceroy of India from 1869 until his untimely assassination in 1872 on the island of Andaman, The Bay of Bengal.
A dedicated British Conservative politician born in Dublin, Lord Mayo brought significant administrative zeal to the Indian subcontinent. His governance focused heavily on infrastructure, establishing priorities in irrigation to boost food security and expanding the railway network to enhance economic connectivity and facilitate rapid military deployment. Notably, his administration conducted India’s first decennial census in 1872 and founded Mayo College in Ajmer, an institution intended to provide a European-style education to the sons of the Indian nobility.
 |
| Equestrian statue of Lord Mayo, Calcutta Illustrated London News, 8 January 1876 |
Above image: Viceroy Lord Mayo,was assassinated by Assassin Sher Ali Khan Afridi an Afghan tribal, on 8 February 1872 on the Andaman Islands, while on a visit to know the prison conditions.This event is recorded in both the log of that ship HMS Glasgow, and William Loney's Medical Journal.
Lord Mayo’s impactful, albeit brief, viceroyalty was abruptly cut short during an inspection of the penal settlement at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. He was assassinated by Sher Ali Afridi, a Pathan convict, making him the only Governor-General or Viceroy of India to be assassinated in office. His body was returned to Ireland for burial at Johnstown, County Kildare, but his legacy in India was immediately preserved through grand monumental art, most notably through equestrian statues that symbolized imperial governance.
The prominent equestrian statue of Lord Mayo now located in the gardens of Flagstaff House in Barrackpore, West Bengal, stands as a prime example of nineteenth-century colonial sculpture. Cast in bronze, the statue portrays the Viceroy in a dignified, authoritative posture atop a finely detailed horse. The piece was sculpted by Thomas Thornycroft (1815–1885), a distinguished English sculptor and engineer who trained under John Francis.
Thorneycroft’s mastery is evident in the anatomical precision of the horse and the lifelike representation of Lord Mayo’s features, balancing the grandeur of military tradition with the gravitas of civil leadership
 |
| Lord Mayo - Barrackpore ,West Bengal. flickr.com |
Above image: This equestrian statue is in Barrackpore, West Bengal; one of the statues in the garden of Flagstaff House. Sculptor: Thomas Thornycroft (1815 – 1885) was an English sculptor and engineer. He spent four years as an assistant to the sculptor John Francis. In 1840 he married Francis’ daughter, Mary, who was also a sculptor. He worked in the studio of John Francis (as did the sculptor of the statue of Queen Victoria in Bombay). He was also responsible for the statue of Queen Boadicea at Westminster Bridge, London.................
This specific statue has a traveled history. It originally stood at the prominent junction of Mayo Road and Dufferin Road near the Maidan in Calcutta (now Kolkata), where it was unveiled in June 1872 at a public ceremony attended by members of the royal family. During the unveiling, Mr. Bullen Smith read an address, and the Prince expressed satisfaction with the likeness of his late friend. The monument remained a fixture of Calcutta's landscape for over ninety years before it was relocated to Barrackpore post-independence to join other colonial-era monuments.
Beyond West Bengal, Lord Mayo’s memory was preserved in other regions of India. In 2007, a massive nine-foot-tall cast-iron statue weighing approximately three tons was accidentally unearthed in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Sculpted by J. Forsyth and R. Monti at the request of Maharaja Ram Singh II of Jaipur as a immediate tribute following the assassination.
It originally stood on the grounds of the Mayo Hospital (now Mahila Chikitsalaya). Following its discovery, this historic statue was relocated to Mayo College in Ajmer,Rajasthan permanently linking the physical likeness of the Viceroy with the premier educational institution that bears his name.
https://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/statue_of_earl.htm
https://www.pdavis.nl/MayoStatue.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bourke,_6th_Earl_of_Mayo
K. N. Jayaraman (Author: navrangindia.blogspot.com)
