Corgis on parade as QEII statue unveiled

UP to 50 corgis will descend on the market town of Oakham, Rutland, tomorrow as the first statue of Queen Elizabeth II commissioned since her death is unveiled on what would have been her 98th birthday.

The late Queen has been immortalised alongside depictions of three of her corgis, one depicted peeking out from beneath her flowing state robes.

Sculptor Hywel Pratley’s 7ft figure will be unveiled in Rutland, Britain’s smallest county, where in a fitting tribute the star guests will be the four-legged members of the Welsh Corgi League.

After the unveiling, the dogs will be paraded from the statue as a lone bagpiper plays a lament.

The corgis were invited in celebration of the late Queen’s life-long, deep affection for the breed after she fell in love with the dogs as a child.

She owned more than 30 over the years, many of which were direct descendants of the first, Susan, which was given to her as an 18th birthday present by her parents in 1944.

In April 2018, she was left devastated by the death of Willow, her final corgi descended from Susan. Her two remaining dogs were dorgis – a cross between the Corgi and the dachshund – named Candy and Vulcan.

The Queen is said to have stopped breeding them in 2015 because she did not want to leave any behind.

However, she was delighted when given two new puppies, Muick and Fergus, by Prince Andrew in early 2021, shortly before the Duke of Edinburgh’s death.

Muick died but was replaced with Sandy, both of which have been taken on by Sarah, the Duchess of York.

The statue depicts a young Queen circa the 1950s or early 1960s.

It was commissioned by Dr Sarah Furness, the Lord-Lieutenant of Rutland, following the Queen’s death in September 2022, after she was “inundated” with letters from local people who felt the loss like a “personal bereavement”.

Hywel Pratley working on his 7ft sculpture of the late Queen