Thomas Fletcher Waghorn
The ' larger than life' statue of Thomas Fletcher WAGHORN R.N. rests
on a square battered plinth with cast panels inscribed;
THOMAS F WAGHORN/LIEUT R N, PIONEER AND FOUNDER OF THE OVERLAND
ROUTE/BORN CHATHAM 1800/DIED JANUARY 7 1850.
The sculptor was
Henry Hue
Armstead R.A.Sculpt. (1828-1905) and the statue was cast in bronze
by a J. Moore, founder, and rests on a limestone and ashlar plinth.
Thomas
Fletcher Waghorn (1800–1850),
whose statue stands in
Chatham, Kent,
was a postal pioneer who developed a new route from Great
Britain to India. Waghorn's route reduced the journey from 16,000
miles, via the Cape of Good Hope,
to 6,000 miles: from three months to between 35 and 45 days. Waghorn
was born in Chatham, England, and baptised at St Mary's Church on 16
July 1800. His father, also Thomas, was a butcher and had married Ann
Goodhugh at All Saints' Church, Snodland,
on 28 July 1794.
At twelve years of age, Thomas entered the Royal Navy
at Chatham, joining HMS Bahama as
a midshipman in November 1812. He married Elizabeth Bartlett at St
John's Cathedral, Calcutta,
in 1822. He became a pilot and took an interest in the early attempts
at establishing a steamship route from England to India and the East.
But the East India Company
- which effectively ran that continent for Britain—showed a
remarkable indifference to his ideas.
After leaving the Navy as a lieutenant in 1832, he made
the journey to India via Egypt as
an experiment to send mail. Disastrously, the journey took four and a
half months—but on his way back, he met the Pasha of Egypt, who
supported his desert route idea.
Personal tragedy followed in March 1834 when his wife
died in Calcutta. By December, however, Waghorn had remarried—to
Harriet Martin, daughter of the miller at Snodland and a neighbour of
his mother. That month, he also inherited a substantial estate from
his grandfather, and the couple lived in Rochester until building The
Lodge in Snodland’s upper High Street about 1841.
Waghorn's business plan began to flourish. He set up an
agency in Cornhill, London, for conveying post—and passengers—to India
via Egypt. Between 1835 and 1837, he lived among Arabs in the desert
and laid the foundations for the overland route across the desert from Cairo
to Suez. This involved building rest-houses and supplying guides,
boats, horses and carriages for travellers.
He became deputy consul in Egypt in 1837 but soon fell
out with the authorities. From 1840, P&O set up in competition with
him, backed by the British government. Then came another setback: 300
horses died in a plague. It was the end—and the Pasha bought him out.
Waghorn turned his attention to speeding the post in
Europe, through the new railway system. He was successful, but the
Government reneged on a deal to pay his expenses, for the trials left
him £5,000 in debt.
Waghorn died at his London home in Islington on 7
January 1850. He was buried at All Saints', Snodland, just outside the vestry door.
The south wall of the nave bears a memorial to him. (from wiki)
MYSTERY?
So, why does Waghorn point north? Surely he
should be pointing east, in the direction of the great overland route
that he discovered? Apparently the answer to the mystery is this
— During the year 1883, a well-known sculptor, Mr Armstead, was
commissioned to execute a statue of Lieut Waghorn to perpetuate his
memory in the Medway district. The position for the proposed Waghorn
memorial was to be a piece of land now part of Victoria Gardens on the
opposite site of the road to the summit of Hamond Hill. Mr Armstead
was invited to Chatham to inspect it and give his decision as to its
suitability. So, on Saturday, 29 November, 1884, Mr Armstead paid his
visit and pronounced the site excellent in every way. He also proposed
that the left hand of Lieut Waghorn should be seen holding a scroll as
the symbol of the plans for the overland route to India. The right
hand was to point to the east, and India.
Unfortunately the proposed site of Victoria Gardens
belonged to the War Department, who promptly refused permission for
the erection of the statue. Three weeks later the Chatham
authorities, backed by the strong opinion of local townsmen,
decided on a new site, that of the vacant site opposite to the
Gibraltar Inn, where it now stands. The idea was that the main roads’
junction there, near the railway station from which visitors from all
parts of the country and world detrained to pass into the town of
Chatham, was a really fine position for the memorial, not only because
it was in a commanding spot, but as also the first thing of interest
to catch the eye of the incoming traveller. Owing to Lieut Waghorn
having to face the top end of Railway Street, it put the memorial out
of alignment with the east and that is why Lieut Waghorn on his stone
base points north instead of east.