The British Library has announced it is now ‘reviewing’ its Sir Hans Sloane manuscripts as ‘woke’ activists target one of scores of 

The British Library has announced it is now ‘reviewing’ its Sir Hans Sloane manuscripts as ‘woke’ activists target one of scores of  landmarks – including the famous Sloane Square – which are named after the pioneering doctor. 

The move was revealed in a note on its website, and coincides with a wider review of Sloane’s legacy that saw the British Museum – which he founded – remove his bust from a pedestal and attach the label ‘slave owner’.

The 18th-century philanthropist partly funded his collection of 71,000 artefacts with money from his wife’s sugar plantation in Jamaica, which used slave labour.

A statue of his likeness on Duke of York Square, off the Kings Road, has attracted the ire of protesters. 

But today the multi-million pound Cadogan Estate which manages the site on behalf of his descendant, the billionaire Earl Cadogan, resisted calls for the statue to be removed. 

They pointed to his astonishing legacy, which included pioneering the smallpox vaccine and the use of quinine to treat malaria.

He is also credited with inventing hot chocolate.

The questioning of his legacy could also see campaigns to rename the scores of streets that memorialise him – many of which are located on the Cadogan Estate. 

As well as the British Museum, Sloane also founded the Natural History Museum and the Chelsea Physic Garden, and was a founding governor of the Foundling Hospital.

All these sites include references to Sloane that could now come under threat.

Another target could be the famous Sloane Square and its well-heeled denizens… nicknamed Sloane Rangers, of which Princess Diana was considered to be an archetype.