Queen Elizabeth memorial statue was inspired by a famous portrait – with Prince Philip ‘a few paces behind’

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth’s national monument will feature a statue of the monarch inspired by a famous portrait, showing her as a young woman with a garter in the early years of her reign.

The final plan for the memorial service in central London was announced to coincide with the late Queen’s 100th birthday on Tuesday.

A bronze statue of the Queen in her 20s, dressed in the robes of the Order of the Garter, will stand facing The Mall at the entrance to the St James’s Park monument, designed by renowned architect Lord Foster.

The memorial will feature a family of gardens with meandering pathways through the park and a new translucent, glass unity bridge inspired by the late Queen’s wedding tiara, replacing the existing Blue Bridge.

The name of the new bridge will most likely be the Queen Elizabeth Bridge.

“A few steps behind” the Queen, in her usual position, will be a smaller statue of her husband, the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, dressed in his Navy uniform, facing his wife of more than 70 years.

Sculptor Martin Jennings’ likeness of the Queen is based on Italian artist Pietro Annigoni’s famous 1955 World War II. It will be inspired by the portrait of Elizabeth.

The Queen sat for Annigoni at Buckingham Palace in late 1954, when she was just 28, and the Renaissance-style painting was completed the following year.

This photograph captures the young monarch, only a few years into his reign, minus the crown but clad in the heavy Garter robe, calm and distant-looking; Annigoni was moved by a remark the Queen had made during a sitting, telling him how much she had enjoyed watching people and cars from her window at the Palace as a child.

The statue is Queen Elizabeth II at the Marlborough Gate on the edge of the park. It will stand 7.3 meters high (with the Queen standing three meters high on a 4.3-metre plinth) in a new civic space called Elizabeth Place.

The smaller statue of the duke, 3.8 meters high, 2.3 meters long and with a 1.5 meter base, will be located 20 meters behind the park.

Philip will also be represented in his Fleet Admiral uniform at a similar age.

Lord Janvrin, the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee chairman and former private secretary to the Queen, said: “We thought it was very important that a statue of our head of state, the Queen, was on the parade route itself.

“He will be depicted standing on his own.

“But Prince Philip was such an important part of the realm that they worked as a team and we decided he should be a few steps behind the Queen, a position he was accustomed to.”

She added: “Prince Philip will be looking up because he’s on a slightly higher pedestal.”

Lord Janvrin said the Annigoni portrait was “a lovely, iconic image of the young Queen”.

He added: “We think most people would probably want to be remembered in their youth.

“But at the end of the Birdcage Walk there will be a bust of the Queen, as I will call her in later years, when she is not very old but probably in her fifties, sixties.”

A bust of the more mature Queen will be created for the other side of the park by artist Karen Newman.

The King, Queen Camilla and other members of the royal family will see models of the planned statues and a scale model of the wider monument when they visit the British Museum on Tuesday as part of events marking the Queen’s centenary.

The figure they will see in Philip’s uniform shows the duke standing with both arms behind his back, as he often did.

The appearance of both statues will be further enhanced during the sculpting process.

This is one of three ongoing projects in honor of the Queen; This includes a new charity, The Queen Elizabeth Trust, and the Digital Memorial, which launched on Tuesday.

The Digital Memorial aims to create a “living archive” of the public’s personal memories of the Queen.

It will digitize the Court Circular, a daily record of official royal engagements, and bring it to life by mapping key events in the Queen’s reign.

Members of the public will be asked to contribute memories via the website Queenelizabeth.com, which was previously owned by luxury cruise line Cunard for the Queen Elizabeth ship but was donated by the company at the request of the digital memorial.

Joe Garner, a member of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee specializing in digital memorials, said: “We could create the most extraordinary archive.”

He suggested that it could be improved by adding public motion pictures and photographs, and expanded to map memories from around the world.

Recorded footage of celebrities including Olympian Tom Daley and artist Dame Tracey Emin is already featured on the new site.

Daley recalls how he was told off for sitting on the Queen’s throne, saying: “I remember the Queen always had an incredible presence when she came into the room.

“I went and sat on his throne and I got scolded for it, because when I was 14, I didn’t realize you were supposed to sit on the reigning monarch’s throne.”

The monument is expected to be completed in 2028.

The steel and glass “crown” bridge used cutting-edge technologies, said Luis Matania, a senior partner at Foster + Partners who led the monument’s construction.

“This is actually an opportunity to use the latest technologies that we have and do something that still maintains the principle of something that is structurally very delicate, like a boardwalk that almost crosses water, that doesn’t interrupt that beautiful view,” he said.

Lord Janvrin said: “We were very keen to try to convey through all the commemorative projects the Queen’s values, her sense of public service, her sense of dedication to serving us and the nation.”

The Queen Elizabeth Trust is an independent grant-making charity that will work with communities across the UK to transform community spaces to bring local people together for generations.

Lord Janvrin said the idea was inspired by the late Queen’s Christmas broadcasts, in which she often talked about the importance of neighbors and local communities.

Sir Damon Buffini, chairman of the new trust, said he hoped millions of people would benefit from future work to regenerate and support areas currently unfit for purpose.

He praised the Queen’s “absolute belief in community”, saying: “Trust is all about how you project those (values) into the future where as many people as possible can benefit from it.”

The foundation hopes to work on its first project by the end of this year.