Medieval-style sculpture of St George slaying the dragon high on the central tower above the main entrance. Is this moustachioed father-figure an allusion to Lord Cardigan?
PB: This is rather an interesting choice of image for this "Patriotic" asylum for girls whose fathers had only recently died in the Crimean War.
Obviously St George is England's patron soldier-saint, whose martial and chivalric virtues in defence of a maiden in distress were well-known. But also perhaps there were also multiple associations with the "east": with George's homeland, Turkey; with the Crusades to recapture Jerusalem, and possible even with the defeat of Russia — that dragon from the East?
Perhaps significantly he is represented as a mature, rather fatherly older man, with a substantial moustache (George is almost always portrayed young and clean-shaven). Notice also the ornate gothic framing / draws on medievalist romanticism widely read (and written) by women at the time.
Making a connection with Cardigan personally is perhaps more tentative. But it is relevant to note that explicit references were indeed made just after the Charge to Cardigan as the inheritor of Richard I's "lion heart".
On medievalism and women at this time, it is worth looking at e.g. Clare Broome Saunders (2005) "Re-reading the legend: medievalism as a discourse of empowerment in the work of women writers and artists, circa 1830-1900", Durham theses, Durham University (available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1811), in which there is an interesting discussion of medievalism and the Crimean War pp 145 ff. Notice e.g. her reference to "For Caroline Hayward, writing in 1855, it is Lord Cardigan who succeeds to the 'lion-heart' of the crusading Richard I" (p.146).
In short, could it be that the St George on the RVPA is a portrait/personification of Cardigan, he of the trademark moustache?
Of course it might be protested that this St George is standing, piercing the dragon with his lance, rather than charging on horseback, as Cardigan would have been. This is indeed rather odd as almost all previous images of George showed him mounted. But of course the Asylum would be taking girls not only from all regiments of the army, but also from the navy and marines. Is it possible that depicting St George on horseback would have been both too obvious and potentially divisive? (Besides, the erect St George fits the space better.)
PB: An even more persuasive objection is that, of all model fathers, Cardigan should have been the last to be chosen. He had no legitimate children (hence his famous line when embarking on the Charge, "Here goes the last of the Brudenells"), but according to his biographer John Sweetman he had a number of illegitimate ones (DNB and presumably his book). Undoubtedly brave in battle, he was, as Anglesey put it it, also "an insufferable cad... he behaved towards women like an insensitive, overbearing, over-rich, spoilt child.' [History, vol2, p109].
Trouble with Paget's wife? Others?
Even at the age of 65, having fallen badly while hunting and thereafter suffering seizures, his "taste for flirtation hardly diminished...he seduced Sir William Leeson's young wife, and in 1857 took as his mistress the Adeline De Horsey" [DNB], whom he married in the garrison chapel, Gibraltar, well away from Society, which generally never accepted them.
NB Curiously the couple themselves had a pronounced taste for medievalist sculpture — see their remarkable tomb at Deene Church. Are there by chance any St George refs in this?
I wonder where one might find out more about how the sculpture at the RVPA was commissioned, perceived etc? Incidentally, so far as I know, nothing like it is shown in images of the new building in magazines and newspapers of the day — I believe they just show a blank space above the main entrance. Must check.
See also the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_and_the_Dragon