Notable for his role in the overthrow of the monarchy in The English Revolution, Oliver Cromwell became 'Lord Protector'.
The statue is Grade II Listed visit link and stands on a stone plinth with the following inscriptions:
'OLIVER CROMWELL
1599-1658
ERECTED BY SUBSCRIPTION
1901.
M.A. HANKIN
MAYOR
G.D. DAY
TOWN CLERK
A TOWNSMAN
OF ST IVES
1631-1636.'
The St Ives Town Web describes why it took so long to commemorate a statue to Oliver Cromwell here:visit link
'After the death of Oliver Cromwell and the subsequent restoration of the Monarchy there was not much cause or will anywhere to erect a memorial, a fact that in later years was to cause Lord Russel, MP for Huntingdon, to remark that "the only great man the shire has produced, and what he did for England and the world is rightly deemed the grandest of all their local associations, but they have not yet dared to raise a statue in his honour on the soil from which he sprang".
And dare they did not for 250 years when a half-hearted attempt was made in Huntingdon to raise the fund to erect a statue but this was abandoned in 1899. Realising the opportunity the people of St Ives quickly raised the necessary funds and a sculpture in bronze was commissioned from F. W. Pomeroy.
The statue was briefly exhibited at the Royal Academy in London to reportedly considerable acclaim before being installed in St Ives in 1901. Although most of the town and its officials turned out for the occasion there were still, 340 years after the death of Oliver Cromwell, those that could not bring themselves to attend.
The statue remains to be the only one in the whole of the country that was raised by public subscription and to this day remains the second most visited and photographed monument in the town after the Chapel of St Ledger.'
Wikipedia describes The English Revolution:visit link
'1642–1660: The English Revolution, commencing as a civil war between Parliament and the King, and culminating in the execution of Charles I and the establishment of a republican Commonwealth, which was succeeded several years later by the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.'
Oliver Cromwell is described here:visit link
'Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader who was part of the joint republican, military and parliamentarian effort that overthrew the Stuart monarchy as a result of the English Civil War, and was subsequently invited by his fellow leaders to assume a head of state role in 1653. As such, Cromwell ruled as "Lord Protector" for a five-year segment (1653–58) of the 11-year period of republican Commonwealth and protectorate rule of England, and nominally of Ireland, Wales and Scotland. As one of the commanders of the New Model Army, he played an important role in the defeat of the King's forces, the royalists in the English Civil War. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Cromwell dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England, conquered Ireland and Scotland, ruling as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658.
Cromwell was born into the ranks of the middle gentry, and remained relatively obscure for the first 40 years of his life. Along with his brother, Henry, he kept a small holding of chickens and sheep, selling eggs and wool to support himself. His lifestyle resembled that of a yeoman farmer until he received an inheritance from his uncle. After undergoing a religious conversion during the same decade, Cromwell made an independent style of puritanism an essential part of his life. He took a generally (but not completely) tolerant view towards the many Protestant sects of his period. As a ruler he executed an aggressive and effective foreign policy and did as much as any English leader to shape the future of the land he governed. But his Commonwealth collapsed after his death and the royal family was restored in 1660. An intensely religious man—a self-styled Puritan Moses — he fervently believed God was guiding his victories.
He was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in the Short (1640) and Long (1640–49) Parliaments. He entered the English Civil War on the side of the "Roundheads" or Parliamentarians and became a key military leader. Nicknamed "Old Ironsides", he was quickly promoted from leading a single cavalry troop to become one of the principal commanders of the army. In 1649 he was one of the signatories of Charles I's death warrant and was a member of the Rump Parliament (1649–1653), which selected him to take command of the English campaign in Ireland during 1649–50. He led a campaign against the Scottish army between 1650 and 1651. On 20 April 1653 he dismissed the Rump Parliament by force, setting up a short-lived nominated assembly known as the Barebones Parliament, before being made Lord Protector of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland on 16 December 1653. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. After the Royalists returned to power, they had his corpse dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded.
Cromwell has been one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British Isles—considered a regicidal dictator by some historians such as David Hume and Christopher Hill as quoted by David Sharp, he was considered a hero of liberty by others such as Thomas Carlyle and Samuel Rawson Gardiner. In a 2002 BBC poll in Britain, Cromwell was elected as one of the Top 10 Britons of all time. His measures against Catholics in Scotland and Ireland have been characterised as genocidal or near-genocidal. In Ireland his record is harshly criticised.'