A Student Union President has caused outrage after she vowed to remove a mural commemorating students who died in World War One because it contains only white men.

Emily Dawes, who leads the University of Southampton Student Union was widely condemned after tweeting: "Mark my words - we're taking down the mural of white men in the uni Senate room, even if I have to paint over it myself."

The Rothenstein memorial, to which she refers, depicts an unnamed student receiving a degree from the Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, representing all the young men who lost their lives in the war and were unable to complete or collect their degrees.

It was painted in 1916 by Sir William Rothenstein, former Principal of the Royal College of Art, and presented to the University of Southampton in 1959, by the artist's son, Sir John Rothenstein.

It features many key academics from the era of the Great War, including vice-chancellors and chancellors, and the then poet laureate Robert Bridges, and other panels of the mural feature young war poets who lost their lives in battle.

It is unclear whether she was aware of the significance of the memorial, although she had tweeted linking it to Armistice Day.