Richard I statue: Second World War damage , On 26 September 1940 a high explosive bomb fell in Old Palace Yard causing severe damage to the building. The report of the incident says ‘the statue of Richard Coeur de Lion appears to have been lifted bodily from the pedestal but sustained only minor damage, the sword being bent.’ The survival of the statue was the subject of an allied wartime radio broadcast in 1940 as a symbol of the strength of democracy which would bend but not break under attack.
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