The Man with a Cone on his Head

I do quite a bit of travelling for work. Markedly not as much of late, due to this rather challenging and long pandemic; but I still get to visit new places every now and then. Working in the sports television industry, I have been lucky enough to see some interesting places. My aim when visiting these various cities or towns all around the world has always been to take away a little information about how it came to be. A piece of its history if you will.

This time I got to work in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, which is famed for its Victorian architecture and character. Famous Scottish actor and all-round entertainer Billy Connolly once said that “the best thing about Glasgow is that if there’s a nuclear attack, it’ll look exactly the same afterwards.” Interpret this bit of humour as you like, however I do think he insinuated that nothing will tear this city down. Which is exactly what the citizens of Glasgow, which they affectionately name ‘dear green place’, have done in this story – not tear things down.

Please note, that I in no manner want to offend any Rangers fans by saying that their city is green. Therefore I will give the city a name of my own, ‘dear green-blue place’. This encompasses the Celtic green and Rangers blue; and hopefully I’m safe to return for work and will be allowed into football matches here.

Now back to the Glaswegian citizens and their rather constructive manner of dealing with the past. My work colleague (also named Michael) and I decided to take a stroll along the river Clyde. He had told me all about the amazing pubs of Glasgow and the various work assignments that he had been part of in the city. While I, forever the tourist, took multiple pictures of the architecture, river and bridges, we decided to get some food.

After realizing that we had a little time before our vegan burritos had been prepared for us, I asked if we should take a walk around. He promptly remembered a rather famous statue, which he called ‘the man with a cone on his head’. Having laughed at the majority of his jokes on our exploration, this time I merely smiled at him. I was more intrigued by a statue with a cone on its head, than amused.

Luckily it wasn’t a long walk and within a few minutes there it was. The man with the cone on his head. It was a statue, like any other and we didn’t really stare at it all that long. Numerous young people were sitting and socializing around the statue, which is located in the Royal Exchange Square. The other Mike, couldn’t really tell me much about it, other than that someone kept putting a cone on the statues head. No matter how many times the authorities removed it.

I couldn’t leave it there. Who did the man with the cone on his head represent, and why did he receive the seemingly unwarranted curse of always having to wear the cone? After walking and having dinner, it was back to the lovely Village Hotel. This is where my research unveiled the true story about the man with the cone on his head.

The statue portrayed a man, famously known as the Duke of Wellington, whose name is Arthur Wellesley. Given my knowledge of the Napoleonic Wars, I knew that he along with the Prussian leader Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (try say that repeatedly) defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon, the Hitler of the 19th century, as I call him, was defeated by a European alliance. Thus preventing more suffering at the hands of the French. So why would anyone appeal the actions of the great Duke of Wellington.

I had always viewed the Duke as a rather iconic figure. Someone who fought against tyranny, however whomever was placing the cone on the Duke’s head, did not agree. This had become somewhat of a tradition in Glasgow, with the authorities first having found a cone on the statue’s head as far back as the 1980s. The authorities would continuously remove the cone, however after decades of ‘vandalism’, the cone would remain on the duke’s head.

It would at times reflect various movements. A rainbow for Pride, stars for when the United Kingdom left the European Union and most recently it supported the Black Lives Matter movement with a raises fist. But why did it appear in the first place? It couldn’t have just been a drunken Glaswegian who began a forty year tradition, could it?

What the average Joe doesn’t know, is that the statue was erected in 1844. A time when the British Empire was in the midst of expanding and doing so on the backs of their colonial territories. The Duke of Wellington, had played a major part in ensuring that the Empire remained in control of its territories in India and the Philippines. After those campaigns he embarked on various military campaigns in Europe.

The cone that was placed on the statue’s head exposed a grey area that so many prominent figures in history represent – good and bad. What I also discovered was that back then prominent members of the Glaswegian society made their fortunes off the slave trade. The street that the statue is facing is named after Archibald Ingram, a man who made his wealth through tobacco farming. Another sugar and tobacco Lord was William Cunninghame, who owned the building that is now the Museum of Modern Art, which can be found behind the statue. The realisation of what the cone on the Duke of Wellington’s head embodied was chilling and yet it truly was a remarkable gesture.

It reminded me of a statue I saw in the Dachau concentration camp in Germany with the writing, “Den Toten zur Ehr, den Lebenden zur Mahnung”. Translated this means, with this we honour the dead, however it is a warning to the living. Amongst the most profound words I have ever come across. The subtlety of the cone was profound too. It underlined a symbolic message, free to the interpreter. However, I do feel that its intent is to warn us and remind us of what we are capable of. Much like what the likes of Ingram and Cunninghame were capable of.

A simple cone on a statue’s head had taught me an immense amount about Glasgow’s history. It preserved the history of the city and yet advised us to learn from it. It is an indication of the mistakes we have made and how we continue to correct them in our various societies today. We truly are learning from our past atrocities. There is still much to do, but the man with the cone on his head reminds us of just how far we have come.