Goatherd's Daughter

Memorial

What is recorded here

The young girl is tenderly holding a kid goat under one arm. he inscription on the pedestal reads: to all the protectors of the defenceless. The sculpture was erected in honour of Harold and Gertrude Baillie Weaver

Read the whole record

Goatherd's Daughter is Charles Leonard Hartwell's 1932 bronze sculpture in Regent's Park. A girl shelters a young goat above a dedication to protectors of the defenceless. The National Council for Animal Welfare commissioned it to honour campaigners Harold and Gertrude Baillie Weaver.

Why it was made

The National Council for Animal Welfare commissioned the bronze to honour Harold and Gertrude Baillie Weaver, who helped found the council and campaigned for animal welfare. Its inscription extends that cause to all protectors of the defenceless.

People and events

Sculptor Charles Leonard Hartwell made the work in bronze on Cornish granite. George Lansbury, then Commissioner of Works and leader of the Labour Party, unveiled it in 1932; Gertrude also wrote on women's suffrage and Emily Davison.

How it worked

The girl holds a kid goat closely under one arm, using a small act of protection to make the dedication visible rather than relying on words alone. The child and animal were intended to evoke care and vulnerability.

What remains

The bronze and granite monument survives in the outer rim of the park's Secret Garden. It had been considered for a site near a playground at Primrose Hill or Greenwich Park before being placed here in 1994.

Why it mattered

The monument joins public art with the history of organised animal welfare and the work of a woman writer and campaigner. Its move also shows how a memorial can keep its meaning while its public setting changes.