The Monument to Beeston soldiers of the Crimean War was erected on Whit Monday 1857 in Beeston churchyard.
An obelisk on a pedestal of Mansfield stone with marble panels, it was paid for by subscription by Beeston people. Tantalisingly, the names of the subscribers are only listed in a document which lies under the monument.
A hermetically sealed bottle containing the list and documentation of what Beeston
did for the war effort, coins of Queen Victoria and Napoleon, and a copy of Sergeant William Jowett’s diary was placed in the foundations.
Of the four soldiers memorialised only Private John Lees, 17 Lancers, died in battle. Privates Thomas Toulson and Joseph Oldham died of diarrhoea at Scutari Hospital. More soldiers died of diarrhoea than were killed in action.
Sergeant Jowett, who was illiterate when he enlisted in 1847, learned to write and kept a diary from the fall of Sebastopol in 1854 until he was wounded and unable to write. Jowett fought at the Alma, Inkerman and at the Redan Battery where he was injured on 8 September 1855. Jowett’s leg wound proved fatal. He was shipped to hospital in Plymouth where he died on 11 October 1856. Jowett was buried in Stoke Damerel churchyard.
Jowett told his father, “Braver men than I have suffered and died for their county’s cause.’
Jowett’s diary and letters were published by Robert Porter, bookseller (and Jack of all trades) who lived on the Turnpike, Beeston. Copies were sent to Queen Victoria and to Florence Nightingale.
Written by the Beeston and District Local History Society. The group meet monthly on 3rd Wednesday at Chilwell Memorial Hall, 7.30pm.
New members & visitors welcome.