Memorial marking Royal Navy’s role in ending the slave trade and championed by the Daily Mail struggles to find a home

A planned memorial to the Royal Navy’s role in ending the slave trade is in limbo after it was rejected by a string of proposed sites.

Campaigners raised £70,000 to build a statue commemorating the West Africa Squadron, which rescued 150,000 slaves during the 19th century, following an appeal championed by the Daily Mail.

It was initially planned for a site in Portsmouth, the city where the squadron was based – only for the owners to pull out, claiming the finished design showing a white officer, a shackled woman and a freed slave ‘lacked sensitivity’.

Since then a series of offers to alternative sites – including Portsmouth council and the city’s historic dockyard – have also been turned down, leaving the sculpture stuck in the artist’s workshop.

Now the fundraisers are appealing for civic leaders to work together and help them give a fitting tribute to the sailors who sacrificed their lives to help end the vile trans-Atlantic trade.

Between 1807 and 1867, the squadron freed more than 150,000 men, women and children destined for servitude in the Americas.

Many hundreds of sailors died, yet there is no memorial to their vital and dangerous work. It comes as schools, universities and stately homes have removed the names of slave traders from their sites.

An appeal to raise £70,000 for the 13ft bronze statue and Portland Stone plinth was championed by then Portsmouth MP Penny Mordaunt as well as a host of eminent historians.

Between 1807 and 1867, the squadron freed more than 150,000 men, women and children destined for servitude in the Americas

Colin Kemp, who set up the memorial appeal, has said that he wants to celebrate a ‘want to glorious but neglected part of Britain’s history’

After donations poured in from Mail readers – topped off by a £25,000 pledge from Tory peer Lord Ashcroft – it has now been completed by acclaimed sculptor Vincent Gray.

It features a QR code which can be scanned using a smartphone, enabling access to historical context about Britain’s role in the slave trade before it was outlawed in 1807.

But last year talks between the organisers and Landsec, owners of Gunwharf Quays, broke down after the firm’s ‘employee diaspora network’ objected, according to emails seen by the Mail.

Instead, the fundraisers approached members of Portsmouth City Council to ask if a site could be found, also contacting Portsmouth Historic Dockyard – home to HMS Victory and the Mary Rose.

However dockyard chiefs replied that they were ‘not able to support this project’ within the site.

Meanwhile the local council says that while it has not received an official approach, ‘a number of our popular locations have reached saturation point where we are no longer able to consider new statues’.

Approaches to English Heritage, Chatham Dockyard and the National Maritime Museum have also been rebuffed.

‘We just want to commemorate a glorious but neglected part of Britain’s history,’ Colin Kemp, who set up the memorial appeal, said yesterday.

It was initially planned for a site in Portsmouth, the city where the squadron was based – only for the owners to pull out. Pictured: Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth

‘Yet we’re left with the completed sculpture standing in a studio.‘We’re not asking for money, we just want somewhere fitting for it to be situated.

‘Portsmouth is a proud naval city and the West Africa Squadron is part of its heritage.

‘But local people are being denied the right to commemorate their forebears..’

Mr Kemp now wants the opportunity to make his case to councillors in Portsmouth directly with a view to an alternative site being earmarked as part of a new sea defences project.

Hannah Prowse, CEO of Portsmouth Historic Quarter, and Matthew Sheldon, CEO of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, said they were ‘ferociously committed to the recognising the service of Royal Navy sailors throughout history’.

‘However, we do so through our programmes of exhibitions, publications and events, which enable us to explore the complexities of those stories and to engage audiences by sharing multiple perspectives and wider context,’ they said in a joint statement.‘

Unfortunately a statue simply isn’t able to do this, and through its commemoration of some, it also neglects the story of thousands of others who lost their lives during this time.

‘For this reason, we don’t believe that this would support the purpose of the project – to truly engage people with this period of history – and therefore the Dockyard is not a suitable location for it.’