[A second unveiling – ten years on – for this special memorial]
A rather unusual object has appeared in the recently revamped Sydney Gardens which represents and commemorates the links between Bath and the British sailor who led the First Fleet to Australia.
It’s a bronze armillary sphere – mounted on a carved Bath stone base – and it has been the centrepiece – over the last ten years – of a memorial garden located next to the Assembly Rooms and across the road from where Admiral Arthur Philliip lived until his death and after his retirement.
The device dates back to the ancient Greeks and was meant to show how the stars moved around the earth at the centre. More recently they represent a more intricate sundial for telling the time according to the sun’s shadows.
This special object was commissioned from the internationally famous sundial maker David Harber, who will be collaborating with Somerset based stone carver Nigel Fenwick.
It’s ended up in Sydney Gardens because the National Trust – who own the Assembly Rooms – have major plans for the building and that includes extended catering facilities – subject to planning permission – over a major part of that original location.
The fact it is now in Sydney Gardens still has a relevance – but let’s talk about the man it commemorates first of all.
Back in 2014 the newly-formed Britain-Australia Society Education Trust launched an ambitious appeal to raise in excess of £200,000 to provide memorials in Westminster Abbey and in the grounds of the Assembly Rooms to recognise the achievements of Admiral Arthur Phillip RN, Commander of the First Fleet to Australia in 1787-8 and founder of the colony of New South Wales and of modern Australia.
Arthur Phillip, although a national hero ‘in Australia ‘down under,’ is largely unknown in Britain.
To mark the 200th anniversary of his death in Bath in 1814, the Trust had the approval of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey to install a ledger stone in the nave near to the tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
Admiral Phillip (1738-1814) had retired from the Royal Navy to pursue a career as a country gentleman but was called back into service and entrusted with the command of the “First Fleet’ – eleven ships carrying a thousand transported ‘convicts’ which sailed in 1788 to begin the settlement of Australia as a penal colony.
It has to be said Admiral Phillip rose to the challenge and managed to hold the colony together through long months of near starvation.
He even established friendly relations with local aboriginal leaders – despite having been speared by one of them.
Finally he was allowed to retire and he took up residence at 19 Bennet Street where he was often seen being pushed around the Circus in his Bath chair.
Funds were also raised for St Nicholas’ Church, Bathampton, where the Admiral and his wife are buried and where there is now an Australia Chapel and informative display about the voyage of the First Fleet.
Ten years on, and another unveiling of the memorial. This time by the Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset, Mr Mohammed Saddiq, and John May who is the Chairman of the Britain – Australia Society Education Trust.
It operates an enduring bursary fund which was established to make educational grants and to award scholarships in Phillip’s name to young Britons and Australians qualified and keen to deepen their knowledge of the other country.
Just before we talk to him, let me point out that the Admiral’s most enduring memorial must be the city of Sydney which he founded and named after Viscount Sydney – the Home Secretary who had sent him on his way.
Sydney Gardens in Bath is also named after this British Politician. It also represents a sort of half way point between where Admiral Phillip ended his days in Bennett Street and – via the Kennet and Avon Canal towpath a direct walk or cycle to Bathampton and his grave at St Nicholas Church.
More information via britain-australia.org.uk
