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.
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| 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 so that the cards listed show a very distinctive figurative memorial in Margate. This was unveiled in 1899 and commemorates those men who died in the ‘Surfboat Disaster' of 1897 when nine crew of the Friend to All Nations were killed attempting to assist the vessel Persian Empire in a storm. It shows, perhaps, that Margate's memorial had some equivalency to the Mexico monument in providing a symbol for the town. Maybe it also suggests some distinctions in general perception of monuments, statues and memorials.
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| The Margate Surfboat Memorial, c.1920 |
When the monument in St Anne's was unveiled in May 1888 the Lytham Times, as you would expect, had quite a spread describing the unveiling, the speeches, and the programme of the day. Another interesting aspect is that the article, headed 'The St. Annes Lifeboat Disaster, Unveiling of the Monument to the Crew', has a conspicuous celebratory tone. This is, in part, because the events also included the launching of a new lifeboat, but the article also celebrates the success of the town as a resort and place of residence. The first paragraphs do not refer to the monument but rather the 'progress of the ideal town, and the expectation that it will become 'a large and much sought after resort for those in search of pleasure and recreation'. However, like other resort developments of the period St Anne's success was not guaranteed and there were times during the 1880s when there were doubts about its future. Fortunately, the development of the pier in 1885 and investment by the town’s main financial backer, William Porritt of Rossendale, gave the town impetus. In this context it seems as though the placing of the monument on the promenade set the seal on the establishment of the town and provided a unique identifier which could be used to promote St Anne's to the wider world. This status of the statue consequently comes later to be embodied in the proliferation of postcards which place the monument front and centre.
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| Lifeboat Monument and Promenade Gardens, c. 1900 |
Following the disaster Southport also acquired a promenade monument in the form of an obelisk which commemorates the town’s losses of December 1886 as well as other local lifeboat heroism. In contrast to St Anne's there are relatively few postcards on sale on eBay featuring this monument which show that it did not become so closely identified with the town. At the time of its commissioning and unveiling there was actually criticism of the design with some considering it too funereal – unlike, perhaps, the St Anne’s memorial which is more expressive of heroic deeds. One of the reasons for selecting an abstract form such as an obelisk was the prohibitive cost of alternatives and, actually, St Anne’s did secure the services of an established sculptor, William Birnie Rhind, to produce a striking and skilfully rendered figurative design relatively cheaply.
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| Lifeboat Memorial, Southport, c.1900 |
The preponderance of cards prominently displaying the monument dates, as I said, from about 1900 to the mid-1920s after which time it becomes less of a feature. I have a multi-scene cards from sometime around the 1930s with five views of St Anne's and other from 1955 with seven views but neither include the monument in their design. The tailing off after that probably suggest that the monument ceased to become a central feature for the town’s publicity. It also marks the point when the promenade came to be more fully developed so the monument, whilst clearly visible would have been a less central feature. Maybe also the sacrificial element of heroism in the monument resonated too much with the scale of the losses in the great war and made monuments of remembrance less likely to be used for seaside postcards designed to promote possibilities of recreation and diversion.
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In 1923 a card written in a childish
hand was sent to the Rev W R N Baron at the Vicarage in Kirby Malham saying
simply 'Dear Sir, We are having a lovely time. With Kind Regards. H. Heaton'. I
am imagining that H Heaton's parents were saying 'Why don’t you send a card to
your teacher' during a family holiday – I’m assuming he was also a teacher as
well as a clergyman! A quick Google search brought up a picture of Reverend Baron
who, it turns out, wrote a history of the Church of St Michael the Archangel in
Malham. Spurred on by curiosity I checked the 1933
Crockford's Clerical Directory on Ancestry and found that William Russell
Needham Baron moved on to Burneside near Kendal in 1928. In the 1901 Census he
was a visitor at the home of Charles Nichols an ‘Eastern and Australian Merchant’
based in Surrey and in 1911 William Baron, a 33-year-old ‘Priest (Established Church)’
lived at Glebe cottage in Guiseley, Yorkshire with his wife Ethel,
sister-in-law Marian, a one year old daughter Mary, and a servant Evelyn Golden.
At that point I had to force myself to stop
although diversions often seem as interesting as the route you intend to
follow!
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| The Lifeboat Monument, 1923... |
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| ....and young H Heaton's message |
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