Queen Elizabeth's Special Bond with Her Famous Corgis Will Be Immortalized in New Statue

Sculptor Hywel Brân Pratley told 'The Telegraph' he hoped to capture the late Queen's essence by including the dog

Queen Elizabeth’s corgis are right by her side in one of the first memorial statues constructed in her honor.

Over the weekend, The Telegraph published photos of the new statue commissioned by the Lord-Lieutenant of Rutland to stand outside a local library. The seven-foot sculpture by Hywel Brân Pratley imagines the young Queen Elizabeth standing in ceremonial robes with the George IV Diadem on her head, the Order of the Garter sash across her gown and one of her beloved corgis at her feet.

“I wanted something that reflected Her Majesty as a Queen rather than as a person for posterity,” Dr. Sarah Furness, the Lord-Lieutenant of Rutland, told the outlet. “But we wanted to do something that reflected her warmth and humanity too.”

Furness said she was “inundated” with letters following Queen Elizabeth’s death in September from people in her county, which is about two hours north of London in the East Midlands. Many likened the loss to a “personal bereavement,” and about $160,000 was fundraised to bring Pratley’s vision to life. The newspaper said that the statue is thought to be the first dedicated memorial to the late Queen.

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The sculptor was tapped to capture the late sovereign in “the prime of her life” and reflect the bright future she had ahead then, Furness said. Queen Elizabeth died “peacefully” at age 96 on Sept. 8, 2022, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, hours after her doctors announced they were “concerned” for her health. She had recently celebrated her Platinum Jubilee that June to mark her historic 70 years on the throne, the longest royal reign of any British monarch.

“She was so indomitable right until the end,” Pratley told The Telegraph. “I hope what I’m achieving with the design is a sense of purpose and stability.”

The artist is also adding two more corgis by the Queen’s side, and the base of the plinth the statue ultimately rests on will have a bench for people to sit.

“I very quickly thought that I would like to have a corgi nestling in her robes by her feet because what a great symbol it is, artistically, of her being mother of a nation… The dogs and us able to shelter under Her Majesty,” Pratley told The Telegraph.

Corgis became synonymous with Queen Elizabeth during her royal reign, and the monarch owned over 30 corgis and “dorgis” (Daschund-Corgi mixes) throughout her lifetime. Sarah Ferguson adopted the Queen’s final two corgis, Sandy and Muick, following her death last fall and exclusively told PEOPLE they were a treasure to care for.

"They are national icons, so every time they run chasing a squirrel, I panic," the Duchess of York previously told PEOPLE. "But they're total joys, and I always think that when they bark at nothing, and there's no squirrels in sight, I believe it's because the Queen is passing by."

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The Rutland memorial statue, which was inspired by photos of Queen Elizabeth in the 1950s and 1960s, will be completed in the coming days and ultimately shine in bronze. It will rise outside the Oakham Library, and King Charles has been invited to do the honors of the unveiling, The Telegraph said.

On a larger scale, plans are reportedly in motion for a national Queen Elizabeth memorial to be created in the U.K. Earlier this month, The Telegraph reported that a team is being assembled to commission the creation and more details will be released in September.

“The Royal household and the Government are understood to have been working ‘hand in hand’ on the project and the membership of the committee will be announced before the anniversary of her death on September 8,” the newspaper reported Friday.

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The update came two weeks after the U.K. government released new guidance on the use of Queen Elizabeth’s name for memorialization.

“Permission to use the title ‘Royal,' or the names and titles of members of the Royal Family, including the name of the late Queen, and other protected Royal titles is a mark of favour granted by the Sovereign, acting on the advice of his Ministers,” the guidance began.

Hinting that a national tribute is being planned, the statement said, “Careful consideration will be given in due course to the commissioning of an official national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II.”

Though Buckingham Palace has yet to make an official statement on what’s happening behind the scenes, the report is no surprise, as an official national memorial has yet to be erected in Queen Elizabeth’s honor.

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