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

                                                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" , fi...

'Life Boat Monument, St Anne's on Sea', Wyndham Series Postcard, 1902 One thing that continues to fascinate me about William Birnie Rhind's Mexico Monument is the depiction of an ordinary man as the focal point of a piece of civic sculpture. In present times, with a now established interest in local history and 'history from below', we are much more used to seeing working-class heritage and the lives of ordinary people celebrated in sculpture.* For example, we have a recently unveiled monument to Wigan miner s or, closer to home,  The Shrimper  in Lowther Gardens in Lytham. Miners' Monument (2021), Steve Winterburn, Wigan However, when the  Mexico  Monument was unveiled in May 1886 it would have been highly unusual to see an ordinary man, or for that matter, even an ordinary seaman or soldier, as the focal point of a piece of statuary in Great Britain. One of the few examples might be considered to be Rhind's memorial to the Black Watch, unveiled in 18...

 I have not been able to find time to add much to the blog recently as I have been focussing on writing for the PhD, but I thought I would add another short piece at the close of the year. It is particularly relevant as we have just passed the 134 th anniversary (9-10 December) of the Mexico Disaster. December 1886 would have been a particularly difficult time in the environs of St Anne's, Lytham and Southport as bereaved families tried to come to terms with the loss of loved ones and breadwinners, and communities mourned whilst local leaders instigated fundraising efforts for those families. Lytham Times , 15 December 1886 This year’s anniversary is obviously not a significant number, but it was nonetheless remembered on the 'St Anne's Past' and the 'Southport of Yesterday' Facebook sites. There are also moves to have more significant commemorations next year for the 135 th anniversary. Evidently the events of December 1886 still have resonance for many in bo...

 A significant area of my research has been and will continue be the sculptor of St Anne's Mexico monument William Birnie Rhind. Whilst not generally considered to be in the major league he does have a considerable reputation as a talented and prolific artist, particularly in Scotland where he lived and obtained most of his commissions. The figure for the Mexico Monument in the Studio of William Birnie Rhind, 1888 Red Rose Collections , Lancashire County Council At the time of securing the commission for the Mexico monument, Rhind was establishing his reputation working in partnership with his father, John, on numerous public commissions in Scotland from their Edinburgh-based firm. As he was applying for the work at St Anne's, he was working on another solo project for a monument to the Black Watch Regiment which was unveiled in Aberfeldy in November 1887.  Black Watch Memorial, Aberfeldy https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_watch_monument_Aberfeldy.jpg I am not sure...

 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...

In early June I was thinking about the progress and likely direction of my PhD research and became a little concerned that it lacked the 'so what?' factor. I wondered that it might not be as relevant or compelling a subject as more contentious memorials and monuments. * In correspondence with my supervisors I had specifically cited the memorial to Edward Colston in Bristol as an example of a memorial with 'issues'. Two days later in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and during the growing Black Lives Matter protests the monument had been pulled down by demonstrators and thrown in the harbour. Colston Memorial, Bristol. Wikimedia Commons I had been aware of the Colston statue for a few years and had recently read an article by Sally Morgan, ' Memory and the Merchants: Commemoration and Civic Identity', first published in the International Journal of Heritage Studies in 1998. In the piece Morgan argues convincingly that the monument could be considered as th...