The Surf Boat Memorial Margate Cemetery

Funerary memorial in Margate Cemetery, unveiled in April 1900. The memorial was manufactured by J Whitehead and Sons Ltd of Westminster in white Carrara marble.

The memorial commemorates nine men buried in the cemetery who died when the Margate Surf boat "A Friend to All Nations" capsized on 2nd December 1897 whilst answering a distress call from the ship Persian Empire. The memorial takes the form of a large rock surmounted by an anchor, a rope and a lifebelt inscribed "Margate Surf Boat". To the right of the rock stands a life-sized weeping female figure in late 19th-century dress, representing Hope, kneeling and holding a laurel wreath.

The front of the rock bears the inscription:

IN / MEMORY / OF / NINE HEROIC MEN / WHO LOST THEIR LIVES BY THE / CAPSIZING OF THE MARGATE SURF BOAT / "FRIEND TO ALL NATIONS" / IN ATTEMPTING / TO ASSIST A VESSEL IN DISTRESS AT SEA / 2ND DEC 1897.

The memorial is bounded by a square white marble kerb with eight tablets bearing the names of the eight crew members who perished and a quotation, surrounded by a carved laurel wreath in relief. The name of the ninth man, Charles Troughton, who was superintendent to the Margate Ambulance Corps, is inscribed on the front of the kerb.

Following the disaster, a fund was raised by local dignitaries and councillors to support the five widows and seventeen children left destitute. Donations came from all over the world. The Daily Telegraph newspaper raised over £1,000 and Queen Victoria donated £35. The final total reached almost £10,000. Initially it was proposed that the money could be used to build almshouses for the families, but it was decided instead to commission two memorials. A second memorial in the form of a bronze figure of a lifeboat man looking out to sea was erected on Margate seafront by the Nayland Rock and was cast by Messrs Elkington & Co of London. The majority of the fund was spent on the two memorials and the funeral procession, with residual capital used to provide a widow's pension of 15 shillings a week. The funeral was attended by almost 2,000 people, local shops were closed along the route, blinds were drawn and bells tolled from all the churches. Because of the monument's size the road to the cemetery required strengthening and a specially designed carriage was fabricated to transport it to its site.