‘Statues do not cause systemic racism,’ says descendant
A DESCENDANT of the Picton family is urging county councillors not to support any calls to remove Carmarthen’s statue of Sir Thomas Picton.
Carmarthenshire Council is to carry out a re-evaluation of street names and monuments including the statue of slave-owning soldier Picton.
Now Aled Thomas from Cardiff, who is related to Picton, has written to all councillors on the council arguing “statues do not cause systemic racism.”
“Racism is caused by the way that people behave not by the presence of pieces of furniture.”
Sir Thomas Picton’s grandfather, Owen Picton, was Mr Thomas’ eighttimes-great grandfather.
Mr Thomas said last month in a letter to Cardiff Council that he does not defend Picton’s cruelty and feels embarrassed to be related to him.
In that letter, he called for a marble statue of Picton within Cardiff City Hall to be removed and placed within a new museum of slavery.
However, he claims in his letter this week to Carmarthenshire councillors that tearing down the statue in Picton Terrace, Carmarthen, is not the answer and claims “that it is an act of treason against the Royal Family to destroy this obelisk.”
He said: “consideration” should be made “for an improvement in the way that the statue is interpreted by other people with alternatives such as putting a plaque containing a balanced description of the history of Picton.”
His letter asks that “the council does not support the removal of the obelisk of Sir Thomas Picton”.
He added: “Sir Thomas Picton is rightfully known as a hero in Wales for his role in the Battle of Waterloo.
“(He) was never convicted of abusing the 14-year-old girl Louisa Calderon.
“He was accused and then found not guilty under British law.”
Mr Thomas said the statue was part of history and added that it was “erected lawfully by the then UK Prime Minister, David Lloyd George.
“The statue is a work of architectural heritage and part of the imperial history of this great nation.
“Deleting this means
Picture: Matthew Horwood
losing a listed statue which is part of a listed building.”
At the start of July, Carmarthenshire county councillors voted in favour of a motion which makes clear the authority’s abhorrence of racism, prejudice and discrimination - past and present.
The motion supports the Black Lives Matter message - spawned by the killing George Floyd by a white policeman in the US - and pledges to work with black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities to identify and eradicate racism in Carmarthenshire.
A cross-party task and finish group will now be set up to take the work forward, and efforts made to include colonialism, exploitation, discrimination and racism in Wales’s new school curriculum.
A protest dubbed ‘Picton Must Fall!’ took place on July 18 with campaigners from Stand Up To Racism West Wales marching from the town centre to the statue.
“The statue is a work of architectural heritage and part of the imperial history of this great nation
Aled Thomas