The Machine Gun Corps Memorial, also known as The Boy David, is a memorial to the dead of the Machine Gun Corps

Machine Gun Corps

The Machine Gun Corps was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in World War I. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks in combat, and the branch was subsequently turned into the Tank...

 in the First World War at Hyde Park Corner

Hyde Park Corner

Hyde Park Corner is a place in London, at the south-east corner of Hyde Park. It is a major intersection where Park Lane, Knightsbridge, Piccadilly, Grosvenor Place and Constitution Hill converge...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. It is topped with a nude statue of a young David

David

David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

 by Francis Derwent Wood

Francis Derwent Wood

Francis Derwent Wood RA was a sculptor, born in Keswick, Cumberland, in England's Lake District.-Early life:Wood studied in Germany and returned to London in 1887 to work under Edouard Lanteri and Sir Thomas Brock; he taught at the Glasgow School of Art from 1897 through 1905 and was professor of...

. To either side of the statue is a real Vickers gun, encased in bronze and laurel-wreathed. The memorial was originally erected in 1925 next to Grosvenor Place

Grosvenor Place (London)

Grosvenor Place is a street in London, running from Hyde Park Corner down the west side of Buckingham Palace gardens, and joining Grosvenor Gardens, which links it to Victoria railway station.-External links:* at londontown.com...

, near Hyde Park Corner. It was dismantled shortly afterward due to roadwork, and was not reconstructed for several decades. It was rededicated at its present location, in the central section of Hyde Park Corner, in 1963. A modello

Modello

A modello, from the Italian, is a preparatory study or model, usually at a smaller scale, for a work of art or architecture, especially one produced for the approval of the commissioning patron. The term gained currency in art circles in Tuscany in the fourteenth century. Modern definitions in...

 for the statue is displayed in Chelsea Embankment Gardens

Chelsea, London

Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

.