Heads did roll: the Statue of Boudicca

In the Victorian sculptor Thomas Thornycroft’s splendidly fierce statue placed by Westminster Bridge in 1902, the rebel queen Boudicca – or Boadicea – is a heroic patriot. She stands triumphantly in her war chariot, a personification of British freedom and defiance. The real Boudicca led her people, the Iceni, in a rebellion against Roman rule in AD60 or 61. She destroyed London, Colchester and St Albans and massacred their inhabitants. Hastening back from a campaign in Wales, the Roman governor defeated and slaughtered the Iceni in the tribe’s last battle. Boudicca probably killed herself on the battlefield
Illustration: Photograph: Graham Turner