Boadicea

There may be a touch of irony about an anti-imperialist rebel becoming a poster girl for Britain's Imperial era, but Boadicea (aka Boudicca, Boudica, Buduica or Bonduca), East Anglia's finest warrior queen, famed for leading a rebellion against the Romans, certainly struck a chord in the reign of Queen Victoria. Pleased by Thomas Thornycroft's statue of Victoria, which was created for the 1851 Great Exhibition, Prince Albert commissioned the English sculptor to create a monumental statue of Boadicea, which was finally cast in 1905, several years after Thornycroft's death. Depicting 'Boadicea and her Daughters' riding into battle in a chariot with scythes attached to its wheels, the statue stands on the north side of Westminster Bridge and contains lines from William Cowper's 1782 poem 'Boadicea: An Ode'.