In June 2020, the famous war memorial known as the Lendy Lion was boarded up and replaced with mirrors by the Spelthorne council, in the wake of the numerous BLM protests that sprung up around Britain calling for the removal of “racist statues.” The memorial commemorates two British officers who served in Southern Africa in the late 19th century, commonly known as the “Lendy brothers.”

To the delight of many citizens of Sunbury, the Lendy Lion has been set free from its cage and is now proudly on display in the walled gardens for all to see. This decision came 7 months after the original boarding, presumably to the movement being less notable in the past few months due to other global events taking the forefront of the media’s attention.

The council has stated that “whilst we continue to look forward with how we interpret the history of the borough, and the localities inside of it, we have made the decision to reopen the war memorial to the general public due to the large support for its reopening.

The original petition to take down the memorial in the walled gardens hasn’t gained any traction after the lion was originally boarded up, and the support for freeing the lion has been overwhelmingly positive, so it is safe to say that the Lendy Lion war memorial will be standing in the walled gardens of Sunbury for the foreseeable future