Eliza Fernley Lifeboat monument in Cemetery

The Eliza Fernley Lifeboat monument, located in the cemetery on Duke Street in Southport, is a Grade II listed structure likely built between 1888 and 1890. Designed by architect Ernest Walter Johnson and sculptor Thomas Robinson, this monument honors 14 members of the crew of the Southport lifeboat "Eliza Fernley."

The exterior of the monument is styled as a tomb chest raised on a high battered plinth. It features a low ashlar base with a rope-work border and round-topped corner bollards equipped with iron mooring rings. The plinth consists of three courses of large rock-faced sandstone blocks, while the polished granite chest is adorned with terminal pilasters, sunk panels on each side, a moulded cornice, and a lid carved to depict a broken mast being battered by waves. The northeast and southeast sides of the monument display lettered marble plaques, while the northwest side features a detailed carved relief of the lifeboat and its crew under a mountainous wave. The southwest side includes a relief of an anchor and a lifebelt, with "Eliza Fernley" inscribed on the belt.

This monument commemorates the tragic loss of the crew on the night of December 9, 1886, when they perished while attempting to rescue the crew of the German barque "Mexico." A related obelisk on the Promenade also commemorates this tragedy.