ABSTRACT
The centenary of the Armistice in 2018, and the eventual realisation of Brexit in 2020, each stimulated a widespread resurgence of interest in the United Kingdom’s relationship with the Great War, the European Union, and its own imperial history. It is clear that a century after the Armistice many issues pertaining to the empire and its emergence from the Great War are not yet resolved, not only within the UK but further afield. Britannia Pacificatrix (Britannia the Peacemaker), finished in 1919 but not actually installed until 1921, which is of particular interest as a microcosm; an embodiment of the emergent disorientation, nostalgia, and anticipation that the post-war era brought to the empire. Between 1914 and 1919, the duration of both the war and the execution of the Britannia Pacificatrix, the British Empire and perceptions of it had changed and so, accordingly, had its art.
