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Bath: Bath Abbey Cemetery (Somerset)

Crimean War Memorial

 

An obelisk of pennant stone; it is unusual for its age (1856) because it records the names of both officers and other ranks.

 

The top of the monument contains the names of various Crimean War battles: Bomarsund, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sweaborg, Tchernaya and Sebastopol. Bomarsund and Sveaborg/Viapori are not in the Crimea at all, but in the Baltic. An Anglo-French fleet spent part of the Crimean War bombarding Russian fortresses in the Baltic, including Bomarsund in the Åland Islands and Sveaborg (Suomenlinna) off the coast near Helsinki (now part of Finland).

 

The names are as follows:

 

Major-General Sir John Campbell

Colonel W. Trevelyan

Lieutenant-Colonel E. S. T. Swyny

Lieutenant-Colonel L. B. Tyler

Captain T. B. Foster

Lieutenant Thomas Molyneux Graves

Major W. Swinton

William Shell, Seaman (first who fell in the war)

George Roberts, Corporal, 21st Fusiliers

Robert Warren, Private, 21st Fusiliers

Edward Harris, Private, Royal Artillery

 

Erected by Citizens of Bath, | In honour, under God, | Of those Heroic Men, especially | Their Fellow-Citizens and Friends here recorded, | Who laid down their lives | In the Campaigns of 1854-5, | triumphantly achieved | for the liberties of Europe.

 

"There is a time to die." -- Eccles. iii. 2.

 

A report of the inauguration of the monument was published in the Bath Chronicle of 5th June 1856. It was apparently a big occasion, with a ceremony at the new memorial, a big service at Bath Abbey with an address by the Bishop ("perhaps so large a congregation was never before assembled in the Abbey Church as on this occasion"), and much sadness and rejoicing. The account also provided some practical details:

 

The monument was erected using surplus funds subscribed by the citizens of Bath in March 1855, when a number of wounded soldiers were passing through the city.

 

The obelisk was designed and executed by Mr. Samuel Rogers, jun. of Widcombe, and was constructed in "the finest pennant stone" It is 20 feet high, the base surrounded by flowers.

 

Its chosen site was at the head of the carriage drive where the road diverges to the mortuary chapel.

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Uploaded on June 29, 2014
Taken on June 29, 2014