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Memorial: M3846

Memorial at St Lawrence’s Church, Seale commemorating Ensign Edward Noel Long d. 1809 as a result of a collision at sea

Location

St Lawrence's Church, Seale, Surrey, England

Transcript

'THIS STONE IS ERECTED IN MEMORY OF / EDWARD NOEL LONG / ENSIGN IN THE COLDSTREAM REGIMENT OF FOOT-GUARDS / ELDEST SON OF EDWARD BEESTON LONG / OF THIS PARISH, / HE WAS BORN MARCH 22ND 1788 / AND ON HIS VOYAGE TO JOIN THE BRITISH FORCES IN SPAIN, / HE WITH OTHERS OF THE REGIMENT / PERISHED IN THE OCEAN NEAR CAPE ST VINCENT / DURING THE CONFUSION OF A FATAL ACCIDENT / OCCASIONED BY THE ISIS MAN OF WAR / FALLING ON BOARD THE TRANSPORT WHEREIN HE WAS EMBARKED / IN THE NIGHT OF THE 6TH OF MARCH / 1809 / THE EXCELLENT QUALITIES OF HIS BRAIN AND HEART, / WHICH SO DEEPLY ENDEARED HIS TO HIS RELATIONS, / AND TO HIS MANY YOUTHFUL COMPANIONS, / HAVE BEEN THUS COMMEMORATED / BY HIS EARLY FRIEND AND SCHOOLFELLOW, // NOW LAST, BUT NEAREST , OF THE SOCIAL BAND, / SEE, HONEST, OPEN, GENEROUS CLEON STAND; / WITH SCARCE ONE SPECK, TO CLOUD THE PLEASING SCENE, / NO VICE DEGRADES THAT PUREST SOUL SERENE, / ON THE SAME DAY OUR STUDIOUS RACE BEGUN / ON THE SAME DAY OUR STUDIOUS RACE WAS RUN; / THUS SIDE BY SIDE, WE PASS'D OUR FIRST CAREER, / THUS SIDE BY SIDE WE STROVE FOR MANY A YEAR. / AT LAST CONCLUDED OUR SCHOLASTIC LIFE, / WE NEITHER CONQUER'D IN THE CLASSIC STRIFE, / AS SPEAKERS, EACH SUPPORTS AN EQUAL NAME, / AND CROWDS ALLOW TO BOTH A PARTIAL FAME; / TO SOOTH A YOUTHFUL RIVAL'S EARLY PRIDE / THOUGH CLEON'S CANDOUR WOULD THE PALM DIVIDE; / YET CANDOUR'S SELF COMPELS ME NOW TO OWN, / JUSTICE AWARDS IT TO MY FRIEND ALONE.'

Details

Description: The upper part of the memorial is carved as if draped. A relief of the collision is placed below the inscription tablet. The star of the Order of the Garter is shown on the apron.
Type: Wall tablet
Position: East wall of north transept
Materials: Marble
Artists: J. Bedford
Vessel: HMS Isis, Prince George

Event Category

1803-1815 Napoleonic War

People

Long, Edward Noel
Age: 21
Date of Death: 6/5/1809
Cause of Death: Maritime accident
Rank / Occupation: Ensign
Organisation: Coldstream Guards

Extra

Notes: 'The Caledonian Mercury' says that the transport 'Prince George' ran down an American bark during the night of the 6th March when bound for Lisbon. Her captain and all of her crew, except one, managed to get on board the 'Prince George'. In the confusion, the 'Prince George' then collided with the 'Isis' frigate. Whilst attempting to get on board the 'Isis', Ensign Long and two or three privates of the Coldstream Guards, fell overboard and drowned. The 'Prince George' survived the accident with the loss of a mast. Long's school friend, Lord Byron writing in 1821, said that Long's father had requested that he write an epitaph but he had not the heart to complete it. Byron confuses the transport 'Prince George' with the naval vessel 'St George', wrecked in the same year. The epitaph on the memorial is taken from the poem 'Childish Recollections' published in 'Hours of Idleness' 1807.
Bibliography: Rupert Gunnis 'Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851' (London, 1964). 'Caledonian Mercury' (Edinburgh) 1 April 1809, Captain William Stothert 'A Narrative of the Principal Events of the Campaigns of 1809, 1810 &c.' (1812) p. 3. Baron George Gordon Byron Byron, Ed. Fitz Green Halleck 'The works of Lord Byron in verse and prose' (New York, 1839 ) p.251
Photographer: Martin Stiles 2011
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