Bronze memorial to tragic Hoylake lifeboat crew unveiled 200 years after their deaths

Dec 29 2010 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

Bronze memorial to tragic Hoylake lifeboat crew unveiled 200 years after their deaths

A BRONZE memorial was unveiled in tribute to eight lifeboat men who lost their lives during a rescue.

A public appeal raised £30,000 in just 12 months for the 6ft sculpture outside Hoylake lifeboat station.

It was handed to the RNLI during a moving ceremony last week, exactly 200 years after the men drowned while trying to rescue a ship in strong winds on December 22, 1810.

The dead crew members, who were all from Hoylake – or Hoose, as it was then known – were John Bird, 40, his sons Henry, 18, and John, 16, and nephew Henry, 18. Joseph Hughes, 38, his brother Richard, 36, and Richard’s son Thomas, 16, also perished.

The eighth man was not identified but the remaining crew members are thought to have survived.

The deaths devastated the close-knit community, which was then just a small village.

Hoylake lifeboat operations manager John Curry, a trustee of the Hoylake 1810 Memorial Fund, said: “It is a beautiful sculpture and a fitting tribute to the men who lost their lives.

“We are so appreciative of all the people who, in these difficult financial times, contributed yet again and helped us reach our target.”

The sculpture captures the seconds before the boat goes under, showing the lifeboatman who was at the steering oar.