Machine Gun Corps Memorial

The Machine Gun Corps Memorial, also known as The Boy David, is a memorial to the dead of the Machine Gun Corps in the First World War at Hyde Park Corner in London. It is topped with a nude statue of a young David by Francis Derwent Wood. To either side of the statue is a real Vickers gun, encased in bronze and laurel-wreathed. The memorial was originally erected in 1925 next to Grosvenor Place, near Hyde Park Corner. It was dismantled shortly afterward due to roadwork, and was not reconstructed for several decades. It was rededicated at its present location, in the central section of Hyde Park Corner, in 1963. A modello for the statue is displayed in Chelsea Embankment Gardens.