Bury the Great Duke
With an empire’s lamentation,
Let us bury the Great Duke
To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation,
Mourning when their leaders fall,
Warriors carry the warrior’s pall,
And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall.
In more realistic tones the Spectator of 20 November remarked that the ‘sentiment was overlaid by the timber, the estimates and the plans; the thing was done so handsomely that the material was in excess of the spiritual’. Wellington’s funeral came shortly after the very successful Great Exhibition and at the outbreak of the Crimean War. The historical context for Wellington’s funeral was important and, as John Wolffe (Great Deaths) stated, it epitomised the ‘Victorian celebration of death’ and was ‘more of a show of pageantry and less of an expression of genuine mourning’.
After the Duke of Wellington, the funerals of prominent people were inevitably something of an anti-climax. There were warm and favourable responses to the funerals of politicians such as Disraeli in 1881 and Gladstone in 1898 and national heroes including David Livingstone and General Gordon (despite the absence of his body). There were factors from the mid-nineteenth century which contributed to a definite increasing sense of collective mourning and awareness. The monarchy was recovering from the disreputable excesses associated with the reigns of George IV and William IV, the apparent detachment of royalty from politics and an increase in the circulation of newspapers and publications that emphasised the role of Empire through stories of exploration, bravery and military heroics.
The turn of the century marked the end of the Victorian era. On 22 January 1901 Queen Victoria died at Osborne House. The response to her death, aided by the improvements in communications, was unprecedented. The Queen had requested that the event should be simple and with as little ‘pomp as possible’. These wishes were ignored. Her coffin was conveyed by train to Victoria Station and then transferred to a gun-carriage drawn by eight horses. It then proceeded through the centre of London to Paddington Station to be taken to Windsor. Despite some criticisms of the expense, there was genuine and widespread mourning and the feeling that her death marked a watershed in the history of Britain and the Empire. The responses to the death in 1910 of her son, the playboy King Edward VII, were less favourable, although excuses were made for his raffish lifestyle and aloofness from the life of his subjects.
Four years later the massive slaughter and brutality associated with the First World War evoked a wave of commemorations, both public and private, in the form of public funeral ceremonies and the proliferation of monuments after the war. Many of those who had fallen were never brought home and were buried in mass graveyards in foreign fields. One hero, whose body was returned, was John Travers Cornwell. John, or ‘Jack’ as he was known, was born in Leyton in January 1900 and was given a funeral to rank with that of any monarch. Jack gave up his job as a delivery boy with the Brooke Bond Tea Company in October of 1915 and enlisted in the Royal Navy. On 16 June 1916 he was sailing on HMS Chester to join the battle fleet at Scapa Flow when the ship met a scouting group of four German destroyers. In the battle that followed, thirty-four men were killed and forty-two wounded on the Chester and young Jack Cornwell was the only member of his gun crew left alive. He kept to his post but after the battle was taken to Grimsby Hospital where his condition deteriorated and he died. A matron at the hospital said that his last words were, ‘Give my love to my Mother, I know she is on her way here’. He was then buried in a war grave at Scartho Road Cemetery, Grimsby. His bravery was acknowledged in despatches: ‘He … remained standing alone at a most exposed post, quietly awaiting orders till the end of the action, with the gun crew dead and wounded all around him’. His death, which was widely reported in the newspapers, clearly touched thousands of people and eventually his mother gave in to public demand and agreed for his body to be exhumed and taken to London for re-burial with full military honours. His funeral procession formed up at East Ham Town Hall with a gun carriage bearing his coffin and the band of the Naval Volunteer Reserve led a huge group of servicemen with thousands of mourners in attendance. The whole route was lined by throngs of those affected by the story and wanting to witness the spectacle. After receiving a posthumous Victoria Cross more recognition was given to Jack: Jack Cornwell Cottage Homes for disabled and invalided sailors were provided, three naval scholarships were awarded for deserving boys and on 21 September a John Cornwell Day was pronounced in all elementary schools.
Memory is sustained through memorials, large-scale commemorations and also by oral accounts. Many memories eventually fade but some are revived through anniversaries such as the bicentenary celebration of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005, which also served the purpose of stimulating a wide interest in the event and in Nelson. After the First World War almost every town and village erected memorials to the war dead accompanied by an annual Remembrance Day in November as a way of showing respect and sustaining memories of the fallen. Deaths in the Second World War, genocide and the nuclear bomb continued the need to remember. This has been done not only through memorials but also visits to historic sites such as the battlefields of the Western Front.
Monuments
It was not until the late thirteenth century that the practice of inscribing gravestones began. Before then individual memorial stones or monuments were virtually restricted to the wealthy and the social elite who would be laid to rest within churches and cathedrals. The vast majority of the population who died in England were buried in the local churchyard but medieval grave-markers have often sunk into the ground and wooden markers have long since perished.
London was an important centre for the production as well as the display of monuments. The tomb of Richard II was made in 1396–9 by London masons Henry Yevele and Stephen Lote, and coppersmiths Nicholas Broker and Godfrey Prest cast the gilt bronze effigies. From the sixteenth century monuments were made and transported all over Britain from workshops in Southwark, St Martin’s, St Giles and the City. Many of the masons and tomb sculptors originated in the Netherlands and Belgium and had come to London as refugees during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Why the number of memorials increased in this period is difficult to explain. Clare Gittings suggests in Death in England (1999) that the increasing emphasis on commemoration from the seventeenth century might be seen as one sign of a developing unease about mortality and an attempt to avoid oblivion. Paradoxically during the Civil War of the mid-seventeenth century there was also a great deal of damage to monuments such as those in Westminster Abbey, Queen Henrietta Maria’s chapel in Somerset House and Archbishop Laud’s chapel at Lambeth Palace. Monuments also suffered huge amounts of damage in the nineteenth century as a result of the enthusiastic but often misguided restoration of church interiors.
One of the most important forms of memorial in Britain is the headstone. This became a common feature from the late seventeenth century. Graves were marked by single pieces of stone set into the earth. On some graves there were matching footstones. Imagery and inscriptions were initially very limited, often bearing little more than a skull and crossbones. These are among the many funerary memorials from the eighteenth century which have survived.
Public monuments before the sixteenth century are very rare. Statues of every monarch since Elizabeth I can be found across London with the exception of the uncrowned Edward VIII. A statue of Queen Elizabeth I stands at St Dunstan-in-the-West on Fleet Street (1586) – the stone figure originally stood at Ludgate. Hubert Le Sueur’s equestrian statue of Charles I (1600–49), which dates from the early 1630s and has been on the present site since 1675, can be seen at Charing Cross. Memorials to monarchs and royalty continued to be erected over the next two centuries. A few of these include those to King Edward VI (1537–53) who has two statues (1737 and 1681) in the north wing of St Thomas’ Hospital Lambeth in recognition of his re-founding of the hospital; Charles II (1630–85) whose stat
ue has stood since 1692 in the Figure Court of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea and James II (1633–1701) outside the National Gallery. The Duke of York Column is a monument to Prince Frederick, the ‘Grand Old’ Duke of York (1763–1827), second eldest son of King George III, and is located between the two terraces of Carlton House Terrace near the Mall. Charlotte (1744–1818), Queen to George III, is represented at Somerset House on the Strand (1780) and Queen Square (1780). Predictably there are many memorials to Queen Victoria (1819–1901) including those in Regent’s Park (1869), Caxton Hall (1902) and Temple Gardens on Victoria Embankment (1902). The well-known landmark to her husband Prince Albert (1819–61) is the Albert Memorial opposite the Albert Hall, built from 1864–76. The subjects of statues are not always easily recognisable. How many people give a second glance to that of George I on the spire of St George’s Church in Bloomsbury or Edward VII standing outside Tooting Broadway underground station?
One of the most famous landmarks in the City, dating from 1671–76 is the Monument (commemorating the Great Fire of 1666) designed by Robert Hooke and Sir Christopher Wren. London also commemorates 600 non-royals through public monuments. The eighteenth-century growth in public statues and monuments were often the work of the leading architects and sculptors of the day. An early example of a nonroyal subject was the statue by the Flemish sculptor Peter Scheemakers (1691–1781) of Thomas Guy, at his foundation of Guy’s Hospital in Southwark in 1734. Monuments to civic and military figures were erected during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly in parks and squares. These include monuments to Lord Nelson (1758–1805), Sir Charles Napier (1782–1853) and General Havelock (1795–1857), all in Trafalgar Square. The pioneer of anti-smallpox treatment, Edward Jenner (1749–1823), has a statue in Kensington Gardens; politicians Charles James Fox (1749–1806) in Bloomsbury Square and Lord George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck in Cavendish Square in Marylebone (1802–48); and the writer Oscar Wilde (1853–1900) near St Martin-in-the-Fields. The rise of the public park from the 1820s created another location for the placing of monuments such as that of Lord Holland, Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland (1773–1840) in Holland Park by G.F. Watts and Edgar Boehm (1872).
Some statues have been entirely removed from their sites such as the one to the ‘Butcher of Culloden’, Prince William, Duke of Cumberland (1721–65). He was the second son of George II and his statue originally stood in Cavendish Square from 1770. Made of lead, it was removed in 1868 to leave an empty plinth but no one quite knows why. Statues have proved controversial such as the one to Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) outside the Houses of Parliament. Cromwell’s role in the Civil War and as Lord Protector had proved to be a matter of controversy since the Restoration. In 1894, the Liberal Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery, proposed that Parliament set up a statue of Oliver Cromwell at Westminster, to mark the 300th anniversary of his birth in 1599. Cromwell’s reputation by the nineteenth century was being revised by people such as Thomas Carlyle and Rosebery who were great admirers. Nonetheless such a proposal was bound to meet fierce opposition from MPs and Rosebery personally paid for the statue to be made. In order to keep the unveiling low key for fear of public opposition there was no ceremony at the unveiling at the early hour of 7.30 a.m. on the morning of 14 November 1899.
Memorials and public statues appeared in large numbers in Britain’s towns and cities during the Victorian period. Some represent little more than vain attempts to remember those who never did anything memorable, but they also included those recognised as having contributed to the common good. Prison reformer Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845) has a medallion (1874) over the entrance to Wormwood Scrubs and the philanthropist and promoter of Sunday Schools, Robert Raikes (1736–1811), has a bronze figure (1880) on Victoria Embankment Gardens; nurse Edith Cavell’s (1865–1915) statue stands opposite the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Many actors have had commemorations erected to their memory, such as Sarah Siddons (1755–1831), whose marble statue (erected in 1897) stands at Paddington Green, and Sir Henry Irving (1838–1905), whose statue can be found near the National Portrait Gallery.
Statues or busts of engineers and scientists include Joseph Bazalgette (1819–91), the civil engineer who changed London by masterminding the creation of an effective sewerage system throughout the city in the mid-1850s. His statue is next to Hungerford Bridge, on the Embankment. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1805–59) is commemorated on Victoria Embankment and Temple Place (1877); gardener, designer, writer and creator of the Crystal Palace Sir Joseph Paxton (1803–65) at Crystal Palace in South London (1869); engineer Robert Stephenson (1803–59) at Euston Station (1871) and Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), mathematician and physicist, at Leicester Square (1874).
Commemorations to famous writers include Charles Dickens (1812–70) at the Prudential Assurance Building in High Holborn. This marks the site of where he lived between 1834 and 1837. A bust of Dickens was placed there in 1907. Londoner John Milton (1608–74) was given long overdue recognition in 1882 with the erection of his statue on Victoria Embankment opposite Blackfriars Bridge. There are a number of memorials to William Shakespeare (1564–1616) including those on Victoria Embankment (1882), in Leicester Square (1874) and a bust (1895) in the Churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury outside the Guildhall. A bronze monument (1884) to William Tyndale (1494–1536), translator of the English Bible, is in Victoria Embankment Gardens. Artists and architects include William Hogarth (1697–1764), who is marked by a stone bust (1875) in Leicester Square, and architect Inigo Jones (1573–1652) whose statue (1729) is at Chiswick House.
Honouring ‘great men’ and great deeds was a mainstay of the Empire and explorers and military ‘heroes’ certainly fitted this category. Captain James Cook (1728–79) is commemorated (1914) in the Mall, a bronze statue (1866) to arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786–1847) stands at Waterloo Place whilst the burial place of David Livingstone (1813–73) lies in Westminster Abbey. Robert Clive ‘of India’ (1725–74), who is credited for establishing the military supremacy of the East India Company and regarded as a key figure in the establishment of British India, has a bronze figure (1912) in uniform at King Charles Street near St James Park.
Politicians and statesmen are well represented. A statue to Richard Cobden (1804–65), manufacturer and liberal statesman, is in Camden High Street (1868); Henry Fawcett (1833–84), Liberal MP and supporter of votes for women, has a memorial (1886) on Victoria Embankment erected by ‘his grateful countrywomen’; a statue (1905) to Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone (1809–98) is on the Strand; William Huskisson (1770–1830) MP, best known for being the first person to be killed by a train, has a stone statue in Pimlico Gardens (1915) and the servant of Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), was recognised with a stone figure (1882) on the Victoria Embankment. The Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) is the only person to have two equestrian statues in London, one at Hyde Park Corner and the other at the Royal Exchange (1844).
War Memorials
War memorials have a long history although until recent times they commemorated battles and great victories rather than the war dead. Most of the memorials erected before the Boer War (1899–1901) were to individuals, usually officers, or to regiments. For example, St Nicholas’s Church in Deptford has a memorial to a death in the conflict with Spain (1584–1604). Westminster Abbey commemorates individuals who lost their lives in the War of the Austrian Succession (1739–48); Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–4); American Revolutionary War (1775–83) and the French Revolutionary War (1793–1802). The Crimean War Memorial in Waterloo Place, St James, unveiled in 1859, commemorates the 2,162 officers and men of the Brigade of Guards who fell in those hostilities. The memorial was cast in bronze from cannons captured at Sebastopol but it was removed in 1914 as the plaque states: ‘The Guards’ Memorial was pulled down in the year of our lord 1914 and was re-erected 30 feet north in order to permit the erection of the Florence Nightingale and Sidney Herbert statues.’
Although the
first outdoor war memorials were built in the aftermath of the Crimean War, examples are rare. Monuments to the fallen of the Boer Wars are slightly more common. They include the statue by Adrian Jones on the Mall which commemorates the Royal Marines in both the Boer War and the Boxer Rebellion in China (1900); the Boer War memorial located on the south wall at the west end of the Great Hall of the Guildhall was erected in 1907 and the Boer War memorial (1906) in Highbury Fields, Islington, by Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal (1863–1931) which commemorates Islington residents who died in that war.
The great age of memorial building was in the aftermath of the First World War. The impact of the Great War on Britain was huge and resulted in a wave of public commemoration. Attitudes towards war in general changed from commemorating military triumph to commemorating those who had lost their lives during these conflicts. As such, monuments became an established part of sustaining the collective memory of the sacrifice made by the many servicemen and women and the bereavement of those they left behind. Jay Winter’s book, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning (1995), demonstrates how war memorials helped the bereaved to recover from their loss and gave mutual help to communities in mourning. The UK National Inventory of War Memorials has compiled a comprehensive record of war memorials in the UK and the Channel Islands listing around 56,000 memorials with more to be added which will bring the figure to around 70,000 in total. There are hundreds of war memorials across London in places as diverse as railway stations, churches, cemeteries and pubs. The most famous of all is the Whitehall Cenotaph.
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