Uncategorised

Memorial: M1090

Memorial at Festival Gardens, Watling Street, near Cannon Street, City of London, EC4 commemorating Admiral Arthur Phillip, RN d. 1814

Location

Festival Gardens, Watling Street, near Cannon Street, Watling Street, London, EC4, England

Transcript

'IN HONOUR OF ARTHUR PHILLIP R.N. / CITIZEN OF LONDON, / FOUNDER AND FIRST GOVERNOR OF AUSTRALIA, / BORN IN THE WARD OF BREAD STREET 11 OCT 1738. / ENTERED THE ROYAL NAVY 1755 AND DIED 31ST AUGUST 1814. / TO HIS INDOMITABLE COURAGE, PROPHETIC VISION, FORBEARANCE, / FAITH, INSPIRATION AND WISDOM WERE DUE THE SUCCESS OF THE / FIRST SETTLEMENT OF AUSTRALIA AT SYDNEY / ON SATURDAY 26TH JANUARY 1788. / THIS MEMORIAL ORIGINALLY ERECTED AT ST. MILDRED'S CHURCH / BREAD STREET AND UNVEILED BY HIS LATE ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE GEORGE . KG . GCVO . RN . ON THE 7TH DECEMBER 1932 / WAS PRESENTED BY THE LATE CHARLES CHEERS / BARON WAKEFIELD OF HYTHE . CBE . LLD / ALDERMAN OF THE WARD OF BREAD STREET, / LORD MAYOR OF LONDON 1915/16 TO THE CITIZENS OF LONDON / AND THE PEOPLE OF AUSTRALIA AS AN ENDURING LINK BETWEEN / THE MOTHERLAND AND THE GREAT ISLAND CONTINENT OF AUSTRALIA. / THE CHURCH WAS DESTROYED BY ENEMY ACTION IN 1941 BUT THE / BRONZE BUST AND PLATES WERE SALVAGED FROM THE RUINS. / THIS RE-ERECTED MEMORIAL WAS UNVEILED ON MAY 8TH 1968 BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE HONOURABLE SIR ALEXANDER DOWNER . KBE . / HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR AUSTRALIA AND REDEDICATED BY THE / RIGHT REVEREND FRANCIS EVERED LUNT BISHOP OF STEPNEY. / ALDERMAN OF BREAD STREET WARD, / H. MURRAY FOX . MA . / COMMON COUNCILMEN S.R. WALKER . CBE . DEPUTY / R. M. SIMONSON . MA, . LLB. / G.D. TRENTHAM, F.N. STEINER . MA . LLB / C. MCAULEY' [.east side panel] ' 'THE FOUNDING OF AUSTRALIA AT SYDNEY / ON SATURDAY 26 JAN 1788. / FIGURES IN ROWING BOAT LEAVING H.M.S. SUPPLY ARE CAPT. ARTHUR PHILLIP, R.N., LIEUT. P. GIDLEY KING R.N., / AND LIEUT. GEORGE JOHNSTON, MARINES A.D.C.' [west side panel] 'THE DISCOVERY AND FIXING OF THE SITE OF SYDNEY / ON WEDNESDAY, 23 JANUARY 1788. / READING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:- SURG. J. WHITE R.N., CAPT ARTHUR PHILLIP, R.N., FOUNDER. / LIEUT. GEORGE JOHNSTON, MARINES. A.D.C., CAPT. JOHN / HUNTER, R.N., AND CAPT. DAVID COLLINS, MARINES'

Details

Description: Bust of Admiral Arthur Phillip and two reliefs showing the landing in Australia now built into a small gabled structure.
Type: Memorial
Materials: Bronze, stone
Date Erected: 1932
Artists: Charles Leonard Hartwell, Sharon Keenan

Event Category

British colonization of Australia

People

Phillip, Arthur
Age: 76
Date of Death: 31/8/1814
Cause of Death: Natural causes
Rank / Occupation: Vice Admiral,
Organisation: Royal Navy

Extra

Notes: Part of a large bronze memorial originally erected in 1932. The Church was destroyed by enemy action in 1941 but the bronze bust was salvaged from the ruins. A reduced version of the memorial was re-erected on the east wall of Gateway House in 1968. One of the reliefs by W. Hamilton Buchan, has been replaced by a new panel by Sharon A.M. Keenan dated 1976. The bust is a fibreglass copy (the original is in the church of St Mary-le Bow, on a 1992 wall monument to Phillip). The memorial was redesigned and re-erected in 1999 following the demolition of Gateway House.

Bibliography: Philip Ward-Jackson 'Public Sculpture of the City of London (Liverpool, 2003) pp. 432-434

Photographer: ©RMG E9058-1
JSON