Trafalgar Square sits in the center of London, just north of the Palace of Westminster. It was christened to celebrate Horatio Lord Nelson’s annihilation of the combined French and Spanish fleets off Spain’s Cape Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars. Nelson’s victory cemented British naval Dominance, which in turn launched the Pax Britannica. Nelson’s Column stands in the center of the square, 170 feet high and topped by a statue of the man himself.

Around Nelson’s Columns are four plinths for four monumental statues. The first holds a statue of George IV; the second, General Charles Napier, and the third, General Henry Havelock. Napier and Havelock were both distinguished officers in British India: Havelock was famous for his command during the Siege of Lucknow; Napier, for his capture of Sindh, and for allegedly reporting his conquest with the single word message, “Peccavi,” meaning “I have sinned.” The fourth plinth is empty.