C18. MONUMENTS LINING THE NELSON ROTUNDA BAYS
This memorial to Florence Nightingale is found in the first Rotunda Bay. Florence Nightingale OM RRC DStJ (1820 – 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. She gave nursing a favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
2. JOHN JELLICOE RH
Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO, DL (1859 – 1935) was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 during the First World War. His handling of the fleet at that battle was controversial. Jellicoe made no serious mistakes and the German High Seas Fleet retreated to port, at a time when defeat would have been catastrophic for Britain, but the public was disappointed that the Royal Navy had not won a more dramatic victory given that they outnumbered the enemy. Jellicoe later served as First Sea Lord, overseeing the expansion of the Naval Staff at the Admiralty and the introduction of convoys, but was relieved at the end of 1917. He also served as the Governor-General of New Zealand in the early 1920s. HIs tomb is in Rotunda Bay 2.
X3. ROBERT NAPIER RH RH
The pedestrian area around the North side of the Cathedral is called Paternoster Row. The area has a grand history, but was devastated by aerial bombardment during World War II. The street is supposed to have received its name from the fact that, when the monks and clergy of St Paul's Cathedral would go in procession chanting the great litany, they would recite the Lord’s Prayer (Pater Noster being its opening line in Latin) in the litany along this part of the route). From here we can view the North nave wall of the Cathedral.
4. JOHN COOKE RH
Captain John Cooke RN (1805) served in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was killed on board ‘Bellerophon’ during hand to hand fighting at Trafalgar, and was buried at sea. The sculpture is by Westmacott (1807-10). The sculpture is in the fifth bay: the passage from the Rotunda to the Nave.
5. GEORGE DUFF AMT
Also in Bay 5 is a memorial to George Duff. Captain George Duff RN (1764 – 1805) was a British naval officer during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was killed by a cannonball at the Battle of Trafalgar.
6. GEORGE GREY RH
Moving to Bay 6 we come to the monument and bronze of George Grey. Sir George Grey, KCB (1812 – 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony, and the 11th premier of New Zealand.
7. GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN MEMORIAL RH
Also in the Sixth Bay is this memorial commemorating all who took part in the Galipoli Campaign in 1915. At dawn on 25 April 1915, Allied troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in Ottoman Turkey. The Gallipoli campaign was the land-based element of a strategy intended to allow Allied ships to pass through the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople (now Istanbul) and ultimately knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war. The Campaign was unsuccessful with great loss of life on both sides. However, it did lead to a new understanding between Australia and New Zealand, as well as the foundation of modern Turkey.
8. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA RH
A further discovery in the Sixth Bay is Lawrence of Arabia (1888 – 1935). Colonel T.E. Lawrence (in full Thomas Edward Lawrence), better known in history as Lawrence of Arabia was a British Army officer, explorer, scholar, writer, military strategist and linguist. He was born in Tremadog, Caernarfonshire, Wales. He studied History at University of Oxford. He joined the Army by taking part in the Officers’ Training Corps at Oxford. He is best known for having helped the Arabs organize themselves against the Turks during the First World War. His memoirs of the time spent with the Arabs, ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ (1926), is a well-known work of literature. He died in 1935 in a motorcycle accident in Dorset.
In the Eighth Bay we find this memorial plaque to Bernard Freyburg. Lieutenant-General Bernard Cyril Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, VC, GCMG, KCB, KBE, DSO & Three Bars (21 March 1889 – 4 July 1963) was a British-born New Zealand soldier and Victoria Cross recipient, who served as the 7th Governor-General of New Zealand from 1946 to 1952. Freyberg served as an officer in the British Army during the First World War. He took part in the beach landings during the Gallipoli Campaign and was the youngest general in the British Army during the First World War. He later served on the Western Front, where he was decorated with the Victoria Cross and three Distinguished Service Orders, making him one of the most highly decorated British Empire soldiers of the First World War. He liked to be in the thick of the action: Winston Churchill called him ‘the Salamander’ due to his ability to pass through fire unharmed.
A more recent addition in this space is this memorial to those who gave their lives in the Gulf War (August 1990 – July 1991). The Gulf War was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait arising from oil pricing and production disputes.