Henry Freeman, The 'Mexico Monument', and Representations of Lifeboatmen

A couple of weeks ago we were having a short break in Grasmere at the impressively titled Grand Hotel. It was lovely to be in the Lakes again. In these Covid times the village centre was inevitably more crowded than it might usually be outside school holidays, but even just a short walk up to Easedale Tarn took us away from the crowds.

During our short visit there were a couple of intriguing co-incidences relating to my studies, research, and local history interests. The first related to the Grand Hotel, which isn't actually that big, but does serve wonderful food and has great views from the garden! I hadn't realized that it is now connected to the Grand Hotel in St Anne's. I think that the family company that runs the St Anne's hotel took over the Grand at Grasmere a while ago. Historically speaking, the St Anne's Grand Hotel was one of the two major St Anne’s hotels, the other being the much-mourned Majestic (formerly the Imperial Hydro) which was demolished in the 1970s. This Grand was built in 1897 and run for many years by members of the Holloway family. I’m sorry to say that in spite of working in St Anne’s and visiting the town for many years I have never entered its doors so will make a point of visiting if only for coffee and cake!

The Grand Hotel, St Anne's c.1930
https://amounderness.co.uk/grand_hotel_1930s-60s.html

Regarding the other co-incidence, when we went into dinner on the first night we were placed on a table close to another couple who were obviously keen to talk. Being occasionally of a somewhat ungregarious disposition my first thoughts were, ‘Oh no, we're going to have to engage in conversation!’, but actually, chatting to Barry and Beryl from near Whitby was very interesting. They had stayed at the hotel over many years and seen the changes through its various incarnations. Our conversation carried on in the lounge after the meal and, being from Whitby , it was perhaps not surprising that they had some knowledge of lifeboats and maritime history. However, what was indeed surprising and even astonishing was that Beryl's great, great (possibly add another great in there!) uncle was the noted Whitby lifeboatman Henry Freeman. I was well aware of Henry Freeman whose story is well established in the lifeboat world as he was the sole survivor of a major disaster in Whitby in February 1861. His life was saved as he was the only crew member wearing one of the newly designed cork lifejackets.

During the course of Freeman's later life he was photographed many times and I had come across his image and the story of the disaster very early in my research. It is mentioned in an RNLI timeline which also lists the Mexico disaster. One of the iconic photographs of Henry was taken by the celebrated Whitby photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe made a living taking portraits of holidaymakers but also took many sophisticated and experimental images of life in and around Whitby which were exhibited across the world. There is still a gallery in Whitby which sells copies of his photographs.

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (1853-1941)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francis_Meadow_Sutcliffe.jpg

You can see below the Sutcliffe image portraying Freeman as the stalwart lifeboatmen, bearded and with his rope and cork jacket. I am not sure how much this image would have been circulated at the time it was taken. This one is dated as c1890 on Wikimedia but another similar one dated as 1880 on a Twitter feed. I have researched two of the principal illustrated periodicals of the era, the Illustrated London News and the Graphic and it doesn’t seem to be have been used there.

Henry Freeman
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frank_Meadow_Sutcliffe_and_The_Sutcliffe_Gallery&action=edit&redlink=1

It is impossible to know how either might have influenced the other but there are certainly echoes of the Sutcliffe images in the attitude and demeanour of the figure in the Mexico Monument as well as the lifeboat accoutrements. A search on Google images does show similar images for the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and a similar feel is created by the cover of Frank Mundell’s Stories of the Lifeboat published in 1894. Similar visual tropes were also used in advertisements for Lifebuoy Soap, and this illustrates that the depiction of the lifeboatman on the Mexico Monument is part of the particular way of representing lifeboatmen in the period. Although part of this wider category, the striking feature of the Mexico Monument is that it is the first significant figurative sculptural representation of a lifeboatman and as such continues to be a major heritage asset for St Anne’s and the Fylde generally