History Reclaimed has received a request for help from Mr Colin Kemp on behalf of the West Africa Squadron Memorial Fund. This was established in 2024 to raise money for a memorial to the 1700 sailors in the Royal Navy who lost their lives, in action and from disease, preventing the transportation of slaves across the Atlantic after the British Slave Trade Abolition Act of 1807.
The West Africa Squadron was formed in the following year and patrolled the coast of West Africa trying to disrupt the continuing slave trade. From small beginnings, the Squadron grew in size until it consumed approximately half the Royal Navy’s annual budget. It operated until 1867, after the abolition of slavery in the United States two years earlier. It is estimated that over these 60 years, the Squadron was responsible for intercepting 1600 slave ships and rescuing 150,000 Africans destined for slavery in the Americas. It was a vital part of the process by which Britain spread and internationalised the fight against slavery in the nineteenth century.
The project was funded entirely by donations and it had the support of the former local MP, Penny Mordaunt. A notable sculpture has been created by Vincent Gray who specialises in historical figures. It shows three figures set on a plinth of Portland stone: a kneeling, shackled slave before abolition; a freed slave; and behind them a naval officer representing the West Africa Squadron. As the Squadron was based in Portsmouth it was the natural place for the sculpture. The owners of the local shopping centre, Gun Wharf Quays, located by the prominent landmark, the Spinnaker Tower, initially gave permission to site the sculpture there. But subsequently they rescinded it because the memorial ‘lacked authenticity and sensitivity’ and would remind people of ‘a dark part of the nation’s history’.
Of course, the sculpture actually reminds us of a remarkable act of national generosity, a profound atonement for the role of some British in the slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries. The establishment of a memorial to the West Africa Squadron does not hide the history of the slave trade nor seek to sanitise Britain’s role in first trading, and then preventing the trade of Africans. Nor would it preclude or prejudice the erection of a memorial to the slaves themselves. Slavery and freedom are part of the same historical narrative and both must be remembered. This sculpture remembers the slaves and the Royal Navy together, and will prompt thoughts and questions about both enslavement and emancipation.
Portsmouth City Council and the Historic Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, from where the Squadron sailed, have also declined the offer of the memorial. So has the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, the Historic Dockyard Chatham (where some of the ships were built) and Gosport City Council (where the ships were victualled). As Mr Kemp writes, ‘The current mood seems only to be interested in apologies and reparations’ and will not recognise the moral action, after abolition, ‘in sending ships to patrol the coast of West Africa for 60 years’.
The West Africa Squadron Memorial Fund is looking for an appropriate home for the memorial, therefore. It might be a civic space with historic connections to the Royal Navy or to the anti-slavery movement. It might be in a museum or in a private location accessible to the public – a country house, for example.
History Reclaimed is very pleased to transmit Mr Kemp’s request for assistance in siting the sculpture. Can anyone help directly or think of a suitable location? Please contact us.
