Amanda Ward’s statue of legendary peace campaigner Brian Haw (1949-2011)

A BRONZE statue of veteran peace campaigner Brian Haw has been unveiled opposite the Imperial War Museum.

Mr Haw staged an uninterrupted 10-year protest against MPs in the House of Commons from a tent in Parliament Square following the invasion of Iraq.

He would routinely blast abuse at the politicians as they entered parliament and fixed photographs of child casualties of Britain’s wars with “Stop Killing Children” placards set up around his tent.

Then Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s government passed special legislation in an attempt to stop his demonstration from Parliament Square.

Ironically, the law that was passed could not be applied to Mr Haw as his protest had preceded it.
He only left his protest for cancer treatment in 2011, shortly before he died aged 62.

More than 1,000 people had contributed around £26,000 towards the costs of sculptor Amanda Ward’s 72-cm statue and its installation.

It has been put up in an inlet in the wall of the School of Historic Dress – facing the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth.

The location is just outside the one-mile “exclusion zone” that was set up by the government to try to get rid of Mr Haw’s protest.

In February 2023 a group of supporters and friends, including the actor and director Sir Mark Rylance, launched a campaign to create a permanent public reminder of Mr Haw’s sacrifice in the name of peace. The statue was displayed in Parliament Square in 2023.

Organisers said: “Brian Haw maintained a noisy presence at Westminster, camped on the grass directly outside the Houses of Parliament. Initially inspired by the war in Iraq and UK and US foreign policy, his peace campaign became an unavoidable accompaniment for MPs as they made their way to and from their place of work.”

An unveiling event on Saturday heard speeches from Sir Mark, patron of the school, and Caro Howell, director general of the Imperial War Museum, and a Tibetan monk from the Lelung Dharma Trust.

Johnny Flynn sang a song for peace and there were many other supporters including John McDonnell MP, Oxford Research Group founder Dr Scilla Elworthy, and Stop the War Coalition
co-founders Lindsey German and Chris Nineham.

The school is also opening an accompanying exhibition, this Sunday, of images of Mr Haw by Richard Keith Wollf and T-shirts by Michael Culver worn by Mr Haw during his protest.