The Mexico Disaster

On the 9 December 1886 the Mexico, a Hamburg-registered barque bound for Guayaquil from Liverpool went aground near Southport, in a full west north westerly gale. Three lifeboats set out, one from Southport and one from St Annes and one from Lytham. In all 27 lifeboat men were lost. The web has much published material and I do not propose to copy and paste onto this page. However there are at least five memorials erected to the disaster. This first memorial is in Duke Street Cemetery in Southport. A large community cemetery it also has a war memorial.
There is a memorial on the sea front of Southport too. There are three memorials in Lytham St. Annes. As I have said somewhere before, a friend is a direct descendent of one of the crew from that St Annes Lifeboat.

These are the pictures of the Southport Duke Street memorial:

The memorial is set in its own oval lawn.

IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF
CHARLES HODGE(COXSWAIN), RALPH PETERS, HARRY RIGBY, HENRY HODGE,
RICHARD ROBINSON, JOHN ROBINSON, TIMOTHY RIGBY, THOMAS JACKSON,
PETER WRIGHT, PETER JACKSON, THOMAS RIGBY, THOMAS SPENCER,
BENJAMIN PETERS AND JOHN BELL.
FOURTEEN OF THE HEROIC CREW OF THE SOUTHPORT LIFEBOAT
"ELIZA FEARNLEY"
WHO TOGETHER WITH THE CREW OF THE ST ANNES LIFEBOAT PERFORMED
A GALLANT EFFORT TO RESCUE THE CREW OF THE GERMAN BARQUE "MEXICO"
WRECKED ON THIS COAST ON THE NIGHT OF THE 9TH DECEMBER 1886
"GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS"

WHILE ERECTING HERE ,
AT ST ANNES AND AT LYTHAM,
MEMORIALS OF THE COURAGEOUS
BRAVERY OF THOSE WHO PERISHED
IN THIS TERRIBLE DISASTER,
THEIR FELLOW COUNTRYMEN
ADEQUATELY PROVIDED FOR
THE SUPPORT OF THEIR
WIDOWS AND ORPHANS.

tHE OPPOSITE SIDE TO THE INSCRIPTION

FOUR DETAILED VIEWS OF THE CARVING

SIMILAR VIEW TO THE WIKIPEDIA PICTURE.

The other memorials will follow shortly. I will try and produce a panorama view of the close-ups of the carving.

Not done the research yet but this memorial may well be linked to the Southport lifeboat that was lost the "Eliza Fearnley" This memorial is also in the Duke St. Cemetery. These are the photos of the Eliza Fearnley  memorial.

In Memory of
JAMES WOOD FERNLEY
ONLY CHILD OF
JOHN AND ELIZA FERNLEY
DIED APRIL 16TH 1837
AGED 13 MONTHS
REINTERRED HERE JUNE 25TH 1856

OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Sacred to the Memory of
JOHN FERNLEY
OF CLAIRVILLE
BIRKDALE PARK
BORN APRIL 12TH 1796
DIED JANUARY 16TH 1873

SAVED THROUGH FAITH
RICH IN GOOD WORKS

Sacred to the Memory of
ELIZA
THE BELOVED WIFE OF
JOHN FERNLEY, ESQ
OF CLAIRVILLE, BIRKDALE PARK
BORN AUGUST 15TH 1805
DIED DECEMBER 29TH 1869

LIGHT AFFLICTION
ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY

Seems quite sad really...

This article was published in the Southport visitor in 2008:

Devout Methodist, John Fernley, made his mark on Southport

Aug 22 2008 by Robert Alcock, Southport Visitor
DEVOUT Methodist John Fernley – one of Southport’s great benefactors – built the Old School House in 1864 for £4,000.
It was one of three houses, along with the adjoining Trinity Chapel, that Fernley built that year but is the only one still to stand.
The 1944 Education Act meant that Trinity Hall ceased to be a day school, its pupils left and only the Sunday School continued.
In 1962 the Old School House was put into the private sector for £1,950, while all the other parts of the great complex built by Fernley were demolished in 1981.
Fernley, a man of wealth, left a string of other significant marks on Southport.
It was he who constructed the meteorological observatory in Hesketh Park, which has now been refurbished.
Fernley was also a committee member of the RNLI and donated the Eliza Fernley lifeboat (named in honour of his late wife) to the town.
The boat would later be lost with nearly all its crew in the great Mexico Disaster of 1886.
Born in Stockport in 1796, Fernley dedicated his life to spreading the principles of Wesleyan Methodism and moved with Eliza to Southport in 1856.
Upon Fernley’s death in 1873, the Reverend W B Pope wrote in memorial: “Mr Fernley was as resolute and tenacious carrying out his plans as he was large minded in framing them.
“Nothing ever turned him aside from a single project that he had well considered and finally determined on.”