The fallen

The statue of the Preston martyrs in Lune Street is something I have blipped before. It shows dramatically, influenced by Goya's El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid, the shooting of young workers by militiamen in Preston in August 1842. It always puzzled me that the statue showed four riflemen but only three workers, when there were actually four. What I did not realise was that the original design by sculptor Gordon Young, as shown in this maquette at the People's History Museum in Manchester, included a fourth figure lying prone between the two groups. I don't know why it wasn't included. Maybe I'll start a campaign...

Goya's painting inspired Manet's Execution of Emperor Maximilian and also Picasso's Massacre in Korea, which I think may also have influenced Gordon Young. The truth of the Korean War and its legacy is only now beginning to resurface after years lying hidden under cold war rhetoric - see this recent piece by John Pilger.