John Lawrence Statue, Foyle College, Springtown, Londonderry

This is a free-standing figurative cast bronze statue of Sir John Lawrence, cast in 1881 to designs by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834–1890), and set on a non-original rough-hewn granite plinth. It stands on an elevated site facing east, to the east of the front car park of Foyle College on Northland Road, Londonderry. The statue was erected at its current location in 1967.

The bronze depicts Lawrence at life size in late 19th-century attire, holding a quill in his right hand and a sword in his left — representing him as both statesman and warrior, reflecting the inscription associated with the work: "Will you be governed by the pen or the sword?" The bronze base carries an inscription on its south side reading "J.E. BOEHM. Feat 1881", and an inscription to the rear reads "RESTORED BY THE / MORRIS SINGER CO. LTD. / LONDON S.W.8 / 1962". A bronze plaque on the front of the plinth reads: "JOHN LAWRENCE / 1811–1879 / VICEROY OF INDIA / 1864–1869 / This statue was erected in / London in 1882 and re-erected in / Lahore in 1887. It was brought to / Foyle College on the initiative of / the Old Boys' Association in 1963 / and unveiled at Lawrence Hill / by J.C. Eaton, D.L., J.P. / on behalf of the Association. It / was removed to its present site / in 1967."

Sir John Lawrence (born 4 March 1811 in Richmond, Yorkshire) spent part of his youth in Londonderry, where he was educated at Foyle College on the Strand Road, at which his uncle the Reverend James Knox presided. He travelled to Calcutta and joined the East India Company in 1830, entering the Civil Service and serving as District Officer of Delhi. During the Sikh War of 1845–46 he was appointed Commissioner of the Jullundur region, where he suppressed the rebellious hill tribes. In 1849 he was appointed to the Punjab Board of Administration and became Chief Commissioner of the Punjab in 1853. During the Indian Rebellion he prevented the fighting from spreading to the Punjab and raised an army to recapture Delhi from the rebels. In 1858, following the suppression of the rebellion, he was made a Baronet. He succeeded James Bruce, Lord Elgin, as Viceroy of India in 1864 and served until 1869, when he returned to England and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Lawrence of the Punjab and of Grateley. He died on 27 June 1879 and was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Following Lawrence's death, several statues were commissioned for placement in England and India. The sculptor chosen for this example was Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, one of the most prolific sculptors of the Victorian period. Born in Vienna in 1834, Boehm moved to London in 1862, exhibited at the Royal Academy, and quickly became renowned for his portrait busts and statues. He was favoured by the Royal Family and received over 40 royal commissions during his career. Among his most celebrated works are the statue of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle (1869), the statue of Charles Darwin at the Natural History Museum (1885), the coinage for the Queen's Golden Jubilee (1887), and the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner (1888).

Boehm designed two statues of Lawrence, both originally exhibited in London. The Foyle College statue was the first, cast in 1881 and originally placed at Waterloo Place in London in 1882. However, Boehm — disturbed by criticism and dissatisfied with it himself — replaced it with a second statue cast in 1884, which continues to stand in Waterloo Place to this day. The original statue was relocated to India in 1887 and placed in the Lawrence Gardens in Lahore, where it remained until the 1960s. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Lahore became part of Pakistan, and the statue was removed from the Lawrence Gardens during that period of upheaval. According to the Derry Journal, the statue lay in a scrap yard in Lahore until the early 1960s, when Foyle College's Old Boys' Association campaigned for it to be brought to Londonderry. In 1962 the statue was returned to London, where it was restored by the Morris Singer Company, who replaced its right hand and the sword in its left hand, both of which had been lost in India. In March 1963 the statue was installed in front of Foyle College on the Strand Road, the school where Lawrence had begun his education. In 1967 it was relocated to its present site on Northland Road during the construction of A.T. Marshall's three-storey school building, which opened in 1968 and continues to serve as Foyle and Londonderry College's junior school.

The statue is not in its original setting, and its only direct connection to its current location is Lawrence's early education at Foyle College. It was first listed in 1979 and was delisted in February 2017.