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Souvenir Newsletter of the North West Research Group of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society, December 1986 Frank Kilroy Collection, Lancashire Archives |
As a slight diversion writing a chapter for my PhD, I thought I'd add another post to my blog. The chapter is about the centenary commemorations of the Mexico disaster in 1986, which is a great way to consider the continuing relevance of the monument and how the disaster was framed almost a century later. Most of my comparisons go back to the unveiling of the Mexico monument on 23 May 1888, but I am also thinking about the immediate aftermath of the disaster in December 1886.
In 1986 a committee was established by the local RNLI
including Frank Kilroy, the Lifeboat Operations Manager for Lytham St Anne's, and
author of The Wreck of the "Mexico", first published in the
centenary year. The specific aims of the committee, expressed in a newsletter
from the North West Research Society of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Group, were
that '…the 'Mexico disaster was to be ..commemorated, not celebrated and any
events organised should reflect this theme'. It was very much driven by the
local RNLI, although there was involvement from Fylde Council, local clergy, St
Anne's and Lytham Ladies Lifeboat Guilds, and the Ladies Lifeboat Luncheon
Club. Images of the monument were used as important motifs and symbols on orders
of service and in newspaper and magazine articles and the monument itself
was the location for a service of commemoration during a procession held in July.
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Order of Service, Commemoration Service, St Anne's Church, & December 1986 The Frank Kilroy Collection, Lancashire Archives
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Whilst there were several large-scale
events, including an episode of Songs of Praise recorded on Lytham Green, on
paper, two smaller events which rounded off the year seem to have been the most
poignant. On 9 December 1986 maroons were set off at both Southport and St
Anne’s, alluding to the first distress signals from the Mexico which
were seen at Southport at around 9pm on 9 December 1886. Then, on the following
day at dawn, the Lytham St Anne’s lifeboat was launched and set off for the
Horse Bank, which at the time was thought to be the scene of the disaster. On
board the lifeboat was the mayor of Fylde, Joan Mason, the branch president,
the station chaplain Rev John Carlisle, and Frank Kilroy and his wife Irene. On
reaching the destination 27 flowers were scattered in the water to remember the
27 men who lost their lives.
The funerals in December 1886
reflected the shock felt by the communities on both sides of the Ribble Estuary as they tried to come to terms
with what was, and still is, the greatest loss of life in a single lifeboat disaster.
At the unveiling for the St Anne's monument in 1888 however, quite a different
tone was struck, more akin to celebration. Although the loss of the men was acknowledged,
it was their heroic actions which were emphasized and this heroism, as it had
been at the time of the disaster, was seen as characterizing national virtues
and what was commonly referred to as 'British pluck'. A report of the unveiling
in the Lytham Times of 25 May 1888 quoted the heir to the Clifton Estate
John Talbot Clifton, channelling the quintessential English maritime hero Lord
Nelson, and saying, 'England expected every man to do his duty, and nobly did
the lifeboatmen of St Anne’s and Southport and Lytham do their duty'.
Over and above this the unveiling was seized
upon as an opportunity to celebrate and promote the town of St Anne’s. The St
Anne's project had undergone some struggles in the early 1880s with difficult
economic times resulting in a wariness from investors. The building of the pier
and its formal public opening in 1885 was part of a process of emerging from
these troubles, as was the inauguration of the lifeboat monument three years
later. The local and regional press were very keen use the event to portray the St Anne's of
1888 as one that was fulfilling its initial promise. The Lytham Times article
focussed initially on the town rather than the disaster and monument. It also made
no mention of recent economic difficulties, but rather stated that, 'the
progress of the ideal town has been almost uninterrupted'. The houses, it
continued, have 'an elegance and grace about them which could well compare with
those of any other seaside town'. The Manchester Times of 26 May 1888 stressed
how many people the unveiling event had brought to the town: 'From an early
hour the trains came in laden with passengers and, for the rest of the day the
town was in a state of unrest and picturesque excitement'.
Just under one hundred years later
in 1986, although St Anne's was one focal point of the commemorations, the event
was not used as a promotional vehicle for the town or to conspicuously engender
a sense of civic belonging. One significant reason for this was that the
centenary events were essentially commemorative rather than celebratory. For
example, there were several religious services held at St John's Church in
Lytham, the parish church in St Anne's, Blackburn Cathedral, and in the open
air during the July procession. It is interesting that this procession, had a
less formal, and perhaps less solemn tone, with the Bands of the Royal Marines
and Fleetwood Sea Cadets playing popular tunes of the day such as Rod Stewarts' 'Sailing' and Harold Faltermeyer’s 'Axel F'!* It is aptly co-incidental that 'Sailing' was used as the theme tune for the BBC documentary series 'Sailor' in 1976.
This captured life on HMS Ark Royal and Rear Admiral W G Graham, who
attended the commemoration service in the parish church in December 1886 as the
RNLI Director, had been the captain of the Ark Royal when the
series was made.
Perhaps the main reason for the
absence of a specific identification with St Anne's, was that the local
geographies and civic structures had changed considerably. St Anne's had grown significantly
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the proximity and development
of Fairhaven and Ansdell, between Lytham and St Anne's during the same period diminished
the sense of a distinct conurbation. This was re-enforced in 1922 when Lytham
and St Anne's were merged as civic bodies to become the Borough of Lytham St
Anne's. Further changes came in the local government reorganization of 1974 when
Lytham and St Anne's, individually and as one unit became part of the wider
Fylde Borough. This did not, and has not, eliminated all sense of a particular
belonging for the residents of St Anne's (or Lytham) but it meant that in civic
terms on the Fylde coast the disaster was being commemorated within Fylde Borough
as a whole.
We also need to consider that from
1925 to 2003 there was no lifeboat station in St Anne's and so for this period
the main RNLI focus was at Lytham. A lifeboat station in a coastal town or
seaside resort is an important part of the identity of the place, and the
absence of this within St Anne's meant that in 1986 it would have been
difficult to frame the monument purely within the context of St Anne's even if
that had been wished for.
Moving onwards to present times,
although I’m sure that the people of St Anne's would not want to exclude those
from Lytham, or indeed Southport, from identifying with the monument, I sense
that St Anne's does feel it has a particular claim to it once again. I believe
that the establishment of the lifeboat station in 2003, followed by the creation
of St Anne’s on the Sea Town Council in 2005, have both been part of this
process. This is something I will also explore later in my thesis and hopefully
on the pages of this blog!
*I am grateful to David Forshaw of Lytham
St Anne's RNLI who kindly passed on to me a copy of a home video of the event recorded
a Councillor Alfred Jealous.
Sources
'The Lifeboat
Memorial at St Anne's', Manchester Times, 26 May 1888
'The St. Anne's
Lifeboat Disaster - Unveiling of the Monument to the Crew', Lytham
Times, 25 May 1888.
The Frank Kilroy
Collection, Lancashire Archives
Kilroy, Frank, The
Wreck of the 'Mexico’' Rev. ed.]. (Lytham: R.N.L.I., Lytham St. Annes
Branch, 2012)
Mayes, Gilbert I.,
and J. E. Mayes, On a Broad Reach: The History of the St
Anne’s-on-the-Sea Lifeboat Station 1881-1925 (Bernard McCall, 2000)
Miller, J. Allen, The
Great Lifeboat Disaster of 1886, ed. by Andrew N. Farthing (Southport:
Sefton Council, Leisure Services Department, 2001)
The Mexico Disaster
9th December 1886 (Lytham St Annes: Lytham Heritage Group, 2011)
Shakeshaft,
Peter. St Anne's on the Sea: A History. First Edition. (Lancaster:
Carnegie Publishing Ltd, 2008.)
Andrew Walmsley, April 2022
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/history/about/people/andrew-walmsley
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