Memorial formerly at St Mary’s Church, Portsea, Portsmouth to those drowned in the loss of ‘Royal George’ 1782
Location
St Mary's Churchyard, Portsea, Portsmouth, England
Transcript
'Reader, / With solemn thought / Survey the grave / And reflect / On the untimely death / Of thy fellow mortals; / And whilst / As a man, a Briton and a patriot, / Thou readest / The melancholy narrative / Drop a tear / for thy Country's / Loss / On the twenty-ninth day of August / 1782 / his Majesty's Ship, the ROYAL GEORGE, / being on the heel at Spithead, / overset and sunk; / by which fatal accident / about nine hundred persons / were instantly launched into eternity: / among whom was that brave and experienced officer / Rear Admiral KEMPENFELT. / Nine days after / many bodies of the unfortunate floted [sic], / thirty-five of which were interred in one grave / near this monument. / which is erected by the Parish of PORTSEA, / as a gratefull [sic] Tribute / to the memory / of that great Commander / and his fellow-sufferers' [on base] 'Tis not this stone, regretted Chief, thy name, / Thy worth and merit shall extend to fame / Brilliant Achievements have thy name imprest / In lasting characters on ALBION'S breast'
Details
Type: Monument
Date Erected: 1783
Vessel: HMS Royal George
People
Age: 64
Date of Death: 29/8/1782
Cause of Death: Maritime accident
Rank / Occupation: Rear Admiral of the Blue
Organisation: Royal Navy
Extra
Bibliography: 'Gentleman's Magazine' , vol. Liii, pp.356-358.