COMIC APPEARANCE: Housman’s defaced statue, which has stood in High Street for 20 years and which will now have to undergo cleaning.
AGILE vandals scaled the statue of Bromsgrove’s most famous son to daub his face in paint.
The statue of Alfred Housman took on a somewhat grotesquely comic appearance reminiscent of the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker in the recent movie Batman Begins. Earlier a gown, complete with hood, had been draped about the stony shoulders, but that has since been removed.
Housman was known to have a waspish sense of humour which prompted Jim Page, the chairman of the Housman Society, to remark that from his lofty perch the great man would have probably smiled to himself on the folly of the youth of today who, it is thought, carried out the prank.
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