Churchill and Austen to be replaced by wildlife on British banknotes

TOI correspondent from London: Winston Churchill, disliked in India for his role in the 1943 Bengal famine, and Jane Austen will no longer feature on British banknotes and instead be replaced by British wildlife.

Churchill currently features on £5 notes with his quote “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”, and Austen appears on £10 notes saying: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” JMW Turner appears on £20 and Alan Turing on £50 notes.

The Bank of England announced Wednesday that following a public consultation on which themes to use on its next series of banknote design, nature came out top. The monarch will continue to feature on the front.

“Within the nature theme, much of the feedback from respondents referred to wildlife that is native to the UK. The bank has also judged that wildlife images would be most effective for developing banknotes with security features,” the bank said. This means hedgehogs, badgers and puffins could replace historical figures, who were introduced in 1970.


The bank will run a second consultation this summer to gather the public’s views on which wildlife to feature.

Alex Burghart MP, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “It is deeply depressing that under Labour our national heroes are considered too ‘divisive’ to be on the banknotes. Most countries celebrate their history. Ours should too.”

“Already children don’t have good enough knowledge of our own history and national heroes. This will make it worse,” said former British diplomat Ameer Kotecha, who has roots in Gujarat.