Commemoration
Memorials in England which commemorate Americans, famous and ordinary, and recall significant episodes in American history
Tomb of Harriet Long and Jacob Walker
in the churchyard of the Old Parish Church of St Mary, Hornsey, Greater London
Listed Grade II in 2007
A tomb dated 1841, comprising a rectangular slate ledger and inscription in crisp Roman capital letters that reads: 'Harriet Long / a native of Virginia / the widow of Joseph Selden / Lieutenant Colonel in the army / of the United States / and the wife of George Long / died at Highgate / on the 18th day of June 1841 / in the 40th year of her age. // Jacob Walker / a native of Virginia / in America the faithful slave / in England the faithful servant / of / Harriet and George Long / and an honest man / died at Highgate on the 12th of August 1841 / in the 40th year of his age' and includes a Latin inscription. Jacob Walker (?1802-1841) was a slave and then a domestic servant for George Long (1800-1879) and his wife Harriet (?1802-1841). Long, a distinguished classicist, was professor of ancient languages at the University of Virginia from 1824 to 1828 where he was a frequent guest of Thomas Jefferson, the rector. In 1828 the family returned to England, Long having been appointed professor of Greek at the new University of London. Arriving in England as part of the Long household, where slavery was illegal, Jacob Walker ceased to be a slave. The epitaph on the tomb emphasises the different roles fulfilled by Jacob Walker in Virginia and England and the disparity in the law of those two places in regard to slavery, lending it great piquancy.
Statue of Princess Pocahontas in Churchyard of the Church of St George
Princes Street, Gravesend
Listed Grade II in 1975
This bronze statue of Pocahontas on a stone plinth was dedicated on 5 October 1958. It is an exact replica of the life-size statue of Pocahantas by American sculptor, Willia Ordway Partridge, unveiled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1922. It was presented by the Governor of Virginia as a gift to the British people, the year after Queen Elizabeth had visited the Jamestown statue on the 350th anniversary of the founding of the colony. Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the powerful chief of the Algonquian Indians in the Tidewater region of Virginia. After meeting Captain John Smith as a young girl, she came to England in 1616 with 15 other Algonquian Indians her husband, John Rolfe, who sought financial support for the Virginia Company. She was presented to King James I and reunited with her friend Captain John Smith. Soon after departing for Virginia in 1617, Pocahontas was deathly ill and the ship returned to Gravesend, where she was buried in the churchyard of St. George's.
TQ6466274327
Triumphal Arch at Parlington Park
West Riding, Yorkshire
Listed Grade II* in 1983
A triumphal arch with three archways, built of limestone and dated 1783, it was designed by Thomas Leverton for Thomas Gascoigne of Parlington Hall. The frieze has fine lettering that commemorates: LIBERTY IN N. AMERICA TRIUMPHANT MDCCLXXXIII (1785).
SE4218136552
Church of St Michael at Dartmoor Prison
Lydford Princetown, Devon
Listed Grade II* in 1967
A church with granite rubble walls built 1810-14, to designs by Daniel Alexander, with later work by RM Fulford, EH Sedding, and Richardson and Gill. It features a stained glass in the east window by Mayer of Munich, in memory of the American prisoners-of-war who helped to build this church, especially the 218 who died here. It is of particular historic importance as a memorial to the French and American prisoners who built it and as the architecturally most distinguished surviving building on the world-famous Dartmoor prison site.
Headstone to John Singer Sargent
Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, Surrey
Listed Grade II in 2004
The American painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was one of the finest artists of the late Victorian and Edwardian epochs, and is best-remembered for his society portraits in the grand manner. Sargent's fame was such that he had a large memorial in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, consisting of a version of his sculpture of Christ in agony. This monument is a Portland stone grave-marker based on an Attic stele, inscribed at top 'LABORARE EST HONORARE', and at the foot 'HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP'. A restrained example of late Neo-classicism, it also commemorates his sister Emily.
Tomb of Samuel Lucas and Margaret Bright Lucas
Highgate (Western) Cemetery (tomb no. 13876), Camden, London
Listed Grade II in 2007
This tomb commemorates Samuel Lucas (1811-1865), a Quaker journalist and social reformer, who died on the 15th of April 1865. The inscription records that Lucas' death was 'a few hours after hearing the tidings of the destruction / of the slave power in the United States, by the fall of Richmond / an object which he had / unceasingly laboured to promote as managing proprietor of the Morning Star.' Another inscription commemorates Margaret Lucas, a temperance activist and suffragist. Lucas was a long-standing supporter of the campaign against slavery, and in 1857 he became editor of the radical newspaper, the Morning Star. An obituary in the New York Times observed that, 'the warmth, ability and steadfastness with which he defended the cause of freedom in this country against the sneers and detractions of the Southern party in England, gave him a high place in the affections and esteem of our people'.
Tombstone to Edwin Austin Abbey RA in St Andrew's Old Churchyard
Old Church Lane, Wembley, Brent, London
Listed Grade II in 1996
Edwin Austin Abbey was an American painter who lived in Chelsea from 1878 onwards. He was best known for mural cycles at the Boston Public Library, The Pennsylvania State Capitol at Harrisburg, in the Royal Exchange and in the Peer's Corridor of the House of Lords. Abbey died in 1911. This is a Portland headstone with upper relief of cherubs set between auricular scrolls, closely based on the Georgian headstone of Timothy Wetherilt (d1741) in the same churchyard.
TQ2066686871
Memorial chapel at the American Military Cemetery
St Neots Road, Madingley, Cambridgeshire
Listed Grade II* in 1998
The memorial chapel and museum room, with attached walls, steps and pool surrounds were designed 1952-54 by Perry, Shaw, Hepburn, Kehoe and Dean of Boston, with Hughes and Bicknell of Cambridge as executant architects. The Memorial and Cemetery was built by the American Battle Monuments Commission, on land donated in perpetuity by Cambridge University. A tall, rectangular Portland stone chapel is placed to one end of a row of three long rectangular pools. To the right of the chapel entrance a wall is attached which turns at right angles to flank a terrace adjacent to the pools. Upon this wall the names of the fallen are inscribed and four service men, in modern dress, stand sentinel, carved in stone. The wall turns again and drops to admit a view of the pools and chapel and there is an approach down a flight of steps, which is flanked to its other side by a matching stone pier. Again the level drops, and the stone wall becomes a low retaining wall enclosing the garden area to the left side of the pools, again to admit a flight of steps near the chapel and to finally become a plinth for the chapel. The chapel is simple in its lines with a tall rectangular doorway and a gable above with a commemorative inscription. Inside, the ceiling and apse are mosaic in blues, browns and golds, depicting angels and aeroplanes. A relief map on the liturgical south wall depicts The Mastery of The Atlantic: The Great Air Assault. The Memorial is a remarkable building of extremely high quality as well as being historically important as a war memorial.
TL4051159550
Pair of Headstones at Church of St. Mary Magdalene
Ecton, Northamptonshire
Listed Grade II in 1986
A pair of early C18 headstones of Lias ashlar stone, with scrolled heads and oval inscription panels. Partially legible inscription to Thomas Franklin, who died in 1702, and Eleanor Franklin who died in 1714, and who were uncle and aunt to Benjamin Franklin.
Lamb House
Rye, East Sussex
Listed Grade II* in 1951
This house was built at the beginning of the C18 by James Lamb, the founder of the family which more or less controlled Rye throughout the C18. George I was entertained at Lamb House in 1725 and the Duke of Cumberland in 1757. A tablet on the house records that the American author, Henry James (1843-1916), lived in the house from 1898 until his death, during which period he wrote The Wings of the Dove (1902) and The Ambassadors (1903). The house is now owned by the National Trust and some of James’ possessions are on display.
TQ 9220
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