St George's Cathedral
on Freetown Blog (Sierra Leone), 29/Nov/2009 02:58, 34 days ago
Travelling into the city centre for pleasure has not been high on my priority list until now, but yesterday, Jayne, Becky and I (VSO colleagues) took off into town to explore. As well as the government wharf and market area, we visited St George's Anglican Cathedral. Walking through the door into the whitewashed nave was like suddenly being back in Britain, a world apart from the streets outside. But on closer examination, the memorials that line the walls give glimpses of the unique  history and geography that have shaped this place. I was so taken with some of the inscriptions that I wrote them down on a scrap of paper. One of the first plaques I came across was at the back of the building, just inside the door: Sacred to the memory of Robert Corley, RAC Corps, who survived the Battle of Waterloo and perished in this unhealthy climate, June 16th 1837, in the 39th year of his age.There was a programme on the BBC World Service recently about the digital recording and broadcasting of  life stories, and their significance for bringing closure and communicating about traumatic events to future generations. Walking down the side aisle, it occurred to me how digital stories are only the latest way of doing something that memorial inscriptions have been trying to do for generations. Another plaque records words that appear to have been written by angry, grieving parents, far away in Britain, telling the story of their son's death:This memorial was erected at the desire of the afflicted parents of John Mansfield, mate aboard HMS The Scout, in token of their untimely and irreparable loss from the effects of a season sickly beyond example, in a climate pre-eminently fatal to the health and life of Europeans. May 6th 1833.Some of the memorials read like references addressed to St Peter, leaving no good deed undeclared, but others choose their words with care, leaving stories untold. Half way down the  south aisle, there is a small memorial stone, high on the wall.163 years on, I wonder about the circumstances of his life, and the grief he left behind.To the memory of William McCauley, his manliness and generosity, the true friend of the poor in this colony. He died on 24th September 1846, aged 38 years. This stone was erected by a friend who loved him well.