Georgia immortalises British siblings in bronze statue

A British brother and sister have been immortalised in bronze in Georgia’s capital by a statue that pays tribute to the pair’s avid promotion of Georgia locally and abroad.

Two life-sized figurines of Oliver and Marjory Wardrop were unveiled in central Tbilisi this weekend in the annual Tbilisoba celebration, marking the diversity and history of the Georgian capital.

Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania, Parliament Speaker Davit Usupashvili, Tbilisi City Council head Giorgi Alibegashvili, British Ambassador to Georgia Alexandra Hall Hall and other local and foreign officials gathered to watch the unveiling of the statue at Wardrop Square – a space earlier named after the British siblings near Georgia’s Parliament Building.

Wardrop Square in central Tbilisi. Photo by Tbilisi City Hall. 

Last year when we opened the Square I promised [to create] a monument honouring the special people for Georgia’s history and diplomacy,” Narmania said. 

The merit of these people to Georgia is immense. The current Georgian-British cultural, diplomatic, social and other positive relations have taken their root owing to Oliver Wardrop’s activities,” he added.

The bronze statues were created by sculptor Jumber Jikia and depicted the siblings walking together through the Square. 

Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania praised the merit of Oliver and Marjory Wardrop while unveiling the statue. Photo by Tbilisi City Hall. 

Sir John Oliver Wardrop (1864-1948) was British diplomat, traveller and translator, while his younger sister M. Wardrop (1869-1909) was an English scholar and translator of Georgian literature. Last century the siblings were avid promotors of Georgia’s statehood, culture and literature inside the country and abroad.

O. Wardrop was primarily known as the UK’s first Chief Commissioner of transcaucasus in Georgia, a role he held from 1919–1921, but he was also the founder and benefactor of Kartvelian Studies at Oxford University in the UK.

After travelling to Georgia in 1887 when it was then part of Imperial Russia, O. Wardrop wrote his study The Kingdom of Georgia, which was published in 1888.

Six years later, in 1894 during his second journey to Georgia, he mastered the Georgian language and published a series of books on Georgia, including his translation of Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani’s The Book of Wisdom and Lies.

After M. Wardrop's death her brother created the Marjory Wardrop Fund at Oxford University to encourage the learning of Georgian language and culture. 

In July 1919 O. Wardrop was offered the post of the first British Chief Commissioner of transcaucasus in Tbilisi. As a capable diplomat, he tried to promote Georgian culture and gather support from the West for the newly-formed country that was under the threat of Bolshevik aggression.

However in February 1921 Soviet Russia's Red Army invaded Georgia, putting an end to the short-lived democratic republic. 

In England, O. Wardrop helped establish the Georgian Society and the Georgian Committee in London. In 1930 he co-formed the Georgian Historical Society, which published its own journal Georgica.

Meanwhile M. Wardrop was remembered for her efforts promoting Georgian culture and literature. She was a linguist and was fluent in seven foreign languages. She travelled to Georgia in 1894-1895, and again in 1896, where she became fluent in Georgian. 

She translated and published Georgian Folk Tales in London in 1894 and The Hermit by Ilia Chavchavadze in London in 1895. She is most remembered for translating into English the 12th Century Georgian epic The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli, published in London in 1912.

After her death O. Wardrop created the Marjory Wardrop Fund at Oxford University for the encouragement of the study of the language, literature and history of Georgia, in Transcaucasia.