PALMERSTON was Prime Minister from 1852 to 1855, succeeding Aberdeen as Prime Minister when it was clear that the country needed a war leader to secure victory in the Crimea.

In his later years, Palmerston's judgement was unsound; he over-rated the danger of a French invasion in the early 1860s, sympathised with the Confederates in the American Civil War and thought he could bluff Bismarck over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of 1864.

He became less interested interested in domestic affairs, rejecting proposals for an extended franchise from his more liberal supporters

His easy- going temperament and cavalier attitude to foreigners made him popular with the British people of that time but he was frequently the despair of Queen Victoria, and sometimes of his colleagues.

He died in office.

Should there not ,therefore, be a certain controversy over his statue?

Name and address supplied.