Tuesday 16 June 2020
Business brains
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Back on the turf
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Picton’s statue palava Matt Brown Reporter
matt@marlboroughmedia.co.nz
Photo: Chrissy Powlesland. Picton identity Sheira Hudson talks about the journey that took her to the port town. Read more in our new series on page 6.
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People are calling for a controversial statue of the man who gave Picton its name to be pulled down. A marble statue of Thomas Picton is included in a City Hall display of heroes in a Welsh city. But angry objectors are calling for the memorial to be ditched, claiming Picton was a “sadistic slave owner.” Picton was the highest-ranking officer killed at the Battle of Waterloo and the Te Āti Awa settlement of Waitohi was renamed Picton by Governor Thomas Gore Browne in his honour. Calls to remove his statue from Cardiff ’s City Hall are rife, with one of Picton’s descendants leading the fight. In a letter to the leader of Cardiff City Council, councillor Huw Thomas, Aled Thomas says he does not defend the actions of his distant family member. “However, while I am related to the Picton family, I do not defend the cruelty that Sir Thomas Picton caused,” he says. “In fact, I feel rather embarrassed to admit I am related to him.” Aled told the BBC he would like to see the statue moved to a national slavery museum to be set up by both the Welsh and UK governments.
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