HMS Boadicea Memorial

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Overview

A commemorative monument to the fallen crew of HMS Boadicea during her campaign of 1879-82. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1428142
Date first listed:: 05-Feb-2016
List Entry Name:: HMS Boadicea Memorial

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1428142
Date first listed:: 05-Feb-2016
List Entry Name:: HMS Boadicea Memorial
Location Description:: HMS Boadicea Memorial, Clayhall Royal Naval Cemetery, Clayhall Road, Gosport, Hampshire, PO12 2BE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Hampshire
District:: Gosport (District Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SZ6094498552

Summary

A commemorative monument to the fallen crew of HMS Boadicea during her campaign of 1879-82.

Reasons for Designation

The memorial to HMS Boadicea is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Historic interest: it commemorates the lives of the crews of the HMS Boadicea that were lost in the ship’s campaigns, as well as the African Kroomen, recruited by the British as guides; * Architectural interest: a good-quality monument in rich materials, and retaining its cast iron rails; * Group value: for its place in the Royal Naval Cemetery and its relationship with the other listed memorials and the cemetery chapel, and within the wider naval landscapes of Haslar, Gosport and Portsmouth.

History

An obelisk was constructed at the Royal Naval Cemetery at Haslar to commemorate the fallen who sailed with HMS Boadicea between 1879 and 1882 during her commission to the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa. The Boadicea delivered 16 officers and 378 men under Commodore Francis Romilly to supplement the Naval Brigade at the Battle of Gingindlovu, one of the bloodiest clashes of the Zulu Wars. The ship then assisted in the first Boer War. The memorial is to those ‘officers, seamen, marines and Kroomen’ who were killed in action and died of diseases during the campaigns; the dedication to Kroomen is unusual, and commemorates those African sailors recruited into the Royal Navy to act as guides.

Details

A commemorative monument to the fallen crew of HMS Boadicea during her campaign of 1879-82.

MATERIALS: pink granite and limestone with wrought iron railings.

DESCRIPTION: an obelisk and pedestal upon on a dressed granite plinth surrounded by low iron railings with stylised foliate enrichment. The four faces of the base have inscriptions in applied metal lettering. The principal face states ‘IN MEMORY OF THE / OFFICERS, SEAMEN, MARINES, KROOMEN OF / HMS BOADICEA / COMMODORE SIR FW RICHARDS, KCB / WHO WERE KILLED IN ACTION OR DIED OF WOUNDS / DISEASE OR ACCIDENT DURING HER COMMISSION / ON THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE / AND WEST COAST OF AFRICA STATION / 1878 – 1882 / ERECTED BY THEIR SHIPMATES’. The other three faces provide names of victims of the conflict and descriptions of their fates.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 16 June 2017.

Sources

Websites
Clayhall Cemetery, Haslar Heritage Group, accessed 5 March 2015 from http://www.haslarheritagegroup.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49:clayhall-cemetery&catid=20:the-buildings-of-haslar&Itemid=109
Memorials and Monuments in Portsmount, ‘St Mary's Church - HMS Boadicea’ , accessed 10 March 2015 from http://www.memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk/churches/st_marys/boadicea.htm
War Memorials Online, accessed 16 June 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/84089
War Memorials Register, accessed 16 June 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/40448

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.