Cenotaph at Beechey Island, Nunavut, Canada commemorating John Boyle, RN, d. 1853
Location
Cenotaph, Beechey Island, Nunavut, Canada, Rest of the World
Transcript
'Sacred / TO THE MEMORY OF / JOHN BOYLE, A.B., / WHO DIED ON BOARD / H.M. SHIP INVESTIGATOR / AT BARING ISLAND / APRIL 6TH, 1853 / AGED 29 YEARS'
Details
Description: A lead plate fixed to an octagonal wooden memorial surmouted by a ball
Type: Memorial
Materials: Wood, lead
Vessel: HMS Investigator
Type: Memorial
Materials: Wood, lead
Vessel: HMS Investigator
People
Boyle, John
Age: 29
Date of Death: 6/4/1853
Cause of Death: Unknown
Rank / Occupation: Able Seaman / Sick Bay Attendant
Organisation: Royal Navy
Age: 29
Date of Death: 6/4/1853
Cause of Death: Unknown
Rank / Occupation: Able Seaman / Sick Bay Attendant
Organisation: Royal Navy
Extra
Notes: Transcript in account of Belcher expedition 1852-4 'Inscriptions on the cenotaph in Beechey Island’. Boyle is buried at Mercy Bay. Sherard Osborne says that Boyle '...by way of a joke, went into the surgery and drank off the washings of several medicine bottles' and this caused his death. ' John Calder attributed it to dysentery.
Bibliography: Sir Edward Belcher 'The Last of the Arctic Voyages: being an narrative of the expedition in HMS Assistance under the command of Sir Edward Belcher, CB, in search of Sir John Franklin, during the years 1852-53-54' (London, 1855). 'Further papers relative to the recent Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin and the crews of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror' (HMSO, 1855) p. 63.
Bibliography: Sir Edward Belcher 'The Last of the Arctic Voyages: being an narrative of the expedition in HMS Assistance under the command of Sir Edward Belcher, CB, in search of Sir John Franklin, during the years 1852-53-54' (London, 1855). 'Further papers relative to the recent Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin and the crews of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror' (HMSO, 1855) p. 63.