"Peter Denny, LLD, Shipbuilder and Engineer
Born 1821, Died 1895.
Erected by friends and fellow townsmen, 1902."
This statue of Dr Peter Denny of Helenslee (
NS3875 : Helenslee House / Keil School) stands on the southern side of
NS3975 : Dumbarton Municipal Buildings (which can be seen on the left). It was sculpted by Sir William "Hamo" Thornycroft. For a view of it from the other side, see
NS3975 : Statue of Peter Denny.
The statue was finished in 1898, but there remained the question of where it might best be sited. A little later, when Lord Overtoun purchased the grounds of College Park, and gifted them to the burgh so that the Municipal Buildings might be built there, it was decided that this would provide the best place for the statue.
The statue is ten feet six inches high. The total height, including the pedestal, is twenty-one feet. The figure of Dr Denny is holding the bow portion of a ship in one hand, and a roll of manuscript in the other. The pedestal weighs 40 tons, is made of white Kemnay granite (
NJ7316 : Kemnay Quarry), and was the work of Shoremaster Boddie(*), of St Clair Street, Aberdeen. Details of the statue and of its unveiling may be found in the Lennox Herald issue of 21 June 1902, in which the statue is described as having been unveiled "Tuesday last".
The plaque that is set into the near side of the pedestal depicts a scene from the shipbuilding industry:
NS3975 : Plaque below statue of Peter Denny. A plaque on the other side represents engineering.
The Denny family were a local shipbuilding dynasty, which might be said to have had its beginnings with William Denny, a carpenter, who, with Archibald McLachlan, launched the steam-boat "Trusty" (1814) from the Woodyard (see
NS3974 : Woodyard House), Dumbarton, in the very early days of the town's shipbuilding industry ["Dumbarton through the Centuries", Dr I.M.M.MacPhail, 1972].
For the memorial to Peter Denny in Dumbarton Cemetery, see
NS4075 : The Helenslee Family Memorial.
(*) "Shoremaster Boddie": William Boddie, partner with Alexander Wilson in the firm Boddie & Wilson, granite merchants and monumental sculptors.