Stone Sermons: Monuments, Memory and the 'Mexico' Disaster

 I am always searching for and examining images of the Mexico memorial and, just after we went into lockdown, I began looking at postcards of the monument on eBay. There were many available for sale, mainly covering the period from about 1900 through to the mid-1920s and, to amuse myself during the earlier stages of the Covid-19 lockdown, I started to order a few reasonably priced ones. It became something of a enjoyable compulsion, and it was almost like having a birthday each day as cards popped through the letter box with a pleasant regularity. The Lifeboat Monument, c.1905 Going through this process it became obvious to me that the monument was very closely identified with the town in that period. As I write, a search for 'lifeboat monument' on eBay produces images of 29 postcards 26 of which relate to the St Anne's Monument. It is interesting that searches for 'lifeboat statue' or 'lifeboat monument' also show mainly postcards, but change the results s

The Mexico monument at St Anne’s was, and is, a focal point for collective mourning and a means of continuous celebration of the heroism of the lifeboatmen lost in the disaster of 1886. Although the monument formalized these processes they really began very soon after the disaster happened as emotive depictions of  the event and its aftermath appeared across various print media. It is a common conception that as a nation (and I speak here perhaps more of England than Britain collectively) we have latterly become far more likely to express emotion both as individuals and collectively. Critics of this perceived trend suggest that we have become emotionally incontinent, less inclined to traditional English stoicism and reserve. However, a quick study of newspapers relating to national events over the preceding 150 years shows that the desire to express emotion collectively over a national event has been with us for a long time The mourning and commemoration surrounding the Mexico disa