Statue of famed New Zealand boxer Bob Fitzsimmons temporarily removed

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

Work begins to remove the Bob Fitzsimmons statue and the three trees at the back of Strathallan Corner in Timaru on Monday morning.

A bronze statue honouring the life of one of Timaru’s most acclaimed sportsmen, world champion boxer Bob Fitzsimmons, has temporarily disappeared from its plinth at Strathallan Corner.

The district council removed the statue on Monday morning as work on the $1.6 million redevelopment of the public area in central Timaru began.

A new location for the statue at the site had not yet been announced.

Timaru District Council group manager corporate and communications Stephen Doran said the statue was carefully packed, put in a frame and removed by a small digger onto a trailer “to be transported to storage’’.

The council was asked how long the statue would be away from the site for and how heavy the statue was.

Doran referred The Timaru Herald to a release from the council on Friday which said the statue was moved “for its own safety’’.

The statue created by Margriet Windhausen was donated to the people of Timaru by Sir Robert Jones in 1987 and unveiled at the site by Prime Minister David Lange.

Work begins to remove the Bob Fitzsimmons statue and three trees at the back of Strathallan Corner in Timaru on Monday morning.

Plaques at the site commemorating the world-famous boxer, would also go into storage while the work takes place.

Fitzsimmons was born in 1863 in Helston, Cornwall, England, and emigrated with his parents and siblings to New Zealand in 1873, settling in Timaru.

He attended Timaru Main School and learnt the art of boxing in the town.

He had his first bout in 1880. At 18, he won four bouts in one night – all by knockout – to win the NZ amateur championship.

The Bob Fitzsimmons statue in Timaru’s Strathallan Corner was created by Margriet Windhausen and donated to the people of Timaru by Sir Robert Jones in 1987. It was unveiled at the site by Prime Minister David Lange.

He later became the first three-division world champion.

His career took him to the United States of America. He later died of pneumonia in Chicago at the age of 54, where Graceland Cemetery became his final resting place.

As part of the redevelopment, which was a piece of the council’s multimillion-dollar CityTown Masterplan, three trees at the back of the site have been removed and would be replaced to “better open the space’’, the release said.

The plinth where the Bob Fitzsimmons statue sat for 38 years in Timaru’s Strathallan Corner after its removal on Monday. Three trees to the right of it were also removed as part of the council’s redevelopment of the area.

It said the trees had been assessed by an arborist and had outgrown their environment, which was causing them health problems.

One tree’s roots was lifting pavers and impacting the parking area behind the space.

“The centre tree’s limbs are resting on the two beside it and have a high risk of falling off when the others are removed,” the statement said.

“And the other tree closest to the toilets is growing over the toilet block and has girdled root.’’