Withers and Henderson Memorial, High Street, Holywood, County Down

The Withers and Henderson Memorial is a High Victorian Gothic memorial of Giffnock sandstone, erected around 1875 and bearing the mark of stonemason W Graham of York Street, Belfast. It commemorates James Withers and Edwin Henderson, two young men from Holywood who drowned on 16 August 1873 during a boating accident at sea.

The tragedy occurred when the crew of the Holywood Rowing and Swimming Club set out from Holywood Pier in fair weather for the Greenisland Regatta. An unexpected storm arose at Garmoyle and capsized their boat. Three crew members managed to hold the boat and were rescued by the steamer Erin, but Withers and Henderson were lost. Both bodies were later recovered after extensive searching. Henderson was the son of Reverend H Henderson, Minister of First Holywood Presbyterian Church.

The memorial is square-plan, set on a stepped ashlar base and flanked by offset buttresses topped with gableted cusped pinnacles and pointed finials. Each face rises to a pointed gable with star carving at the apex and roll-moulded ridge, beneath a steep corbelled stone roof. Each face features a pointed-arched recess with a rope-moulded head, supported on red polished granite colonettes with foliated capitals. The western face displays an anchor carved into the tympanum, with the colonettes flanking a marble tablet bearing the memorial inscription. The other three faces have blank tympana with marble tablets. The detailing throughout features a nautical theme with rope and anchor carving.

The memorial is prominently located at the junction of Bangor Road and Priory Park, directly west of Holywood Priory, and is set within a civic space of paved footpath and flowerbeds. It appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–02 and is captioned as a monument on later editions. The memorial is a landmark of considerable local interest.