Crozier Monument, Church Square, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4AP

Crozier Monument, Church Square, Banbridge

This is a public memorial monument erected in 1862 to commemorate Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier, the Banbridge-born polar explorer. It was designed by William Joseph Barre (1830–1867) of Newry, with carvings executed by the Dublin-based sculptor Joseph Robinson Kirk (1821–1894). Construction was carried out by Graham of Belfast, who submitted a tender of £274, though the final cost of the monument came to £700. The monument stands in the centre of Church Square, on a modern granite traffic island at the junction of Bridge Street, Castlewellan Street and Church Square, directly opposite Crozier's birthplace and family home, Avonmore House (now known as Crozier House).

The monument is constructed primarily in limestone and granite. It rises from an ashlar limestone chamfered square-plan plinth with buttresses, each topped with a carved limestone sculpture of a grieving polar bear. Above the plinth sits a central pier with depressed gothic arched niches to each face, each niche framed by a moulded archivolt of pilasters with hood moulding and moulded stops. The north-east and south-west niches contain engraved slate panels bearing the memorial inscriptions (transcribed in full below). The south-east and north-west niches contain sandstone relief carvings depicting the ships HMS Terror and HMS Erebus embedded in ice. Below the niches, the word "CROZIER" is embossed in relief. The central pier is surmounted by an octagonal open cusped gothic arcade of granite columns with limestone moulded foliate capitals and bases. Above this rises a moulded limestone octagonal tapered cap embellished with foliated carving, which in turn supports a limestone statue of Crozier himself. Additional carved details incorporated into the monument include scallop shells, four anchors, an Arctic otter, and convolvulus — a flower genus chosen to symbolise the scientific character of Crozier's expeditions.

The inscriptions on the engraved slate panels read as follows:

"TO PERPETUATE THE REMEMBRANCE OF TALENT ENTERPRISE AND WORTH, ALL COMBINED IN THE CHARACTER AND EVIDENCED IN THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN FRANCIS RAWDON MOIRA CROZIER R.N. F.R.S. THIS MONUMENT HAS BEEN ERECTED BY FRIENDS WHO AS THEY VALUED HIM IN LIFE REGRET HIM IN DEATH. HE WAS SECOND IN COMMAND WITH CAPTAIN SIR JOHN FRANKLIN R.N. F.R.S. AND CAPTAIN OF H.M. SHIP TERROR IN THE POLAR EXPEDITION WHICH LEFT ENGLAND ON 22ND MAY 1845."

"ALTHOUGH THERE REMAINED NO SURVIVORS OF THE EXPEDITION, ENOUGH HAS BEEN ASCERTAINED TO SHOW THAT, TO IT, IS JUSTLY DUE THE HONOUR OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE LONG SOUGHT FOR NORTH WEST PASSAGE, AND THAT CAPTAIN CROZIER, HAVING SURVIVED HIS CHIEF, PERISHED WITH THE REMAINDER OF THE PARTY AFTER HE HAD BRAVELY LED THEM TO THE COAST OF AMERICA. HE WAS BORN AT BANBRIDGE, THE — SEPTEMBER 1796, BUT OF THE PLACE OR TIME OF HIS DEATH NO MAN KNOWETH UNTO THIS DAY."

The monument was designed in the Gothic style of the 13th century. It was originally intended to incorporate a series of bas-relief carvings illustrating Crozier's career as an Arctic explorer, but this feature was abandoned when the project exceeded its budget. The polar bears flanking Crozier's statue were already showing considerable signs of wear by 1969, and weathering continues to cause loss of detail to elements of the historic fabric.

The monument commemorates a figure of considerable local and national significance. Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier was born in Banbridge in September 1796 and joined the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars at the age of fourteen. He rose steadily through the ranks, sailing with Captain William Edward Parry on three Arctic expeditions — in 1821, 1824, and 1827 — during Parry's attempts to discover the North-West Passage. Promoted to Commander in 1837, Crozier commanded HMS Terrier during Captain James Clark Ross's expedition to the Antarctic. He was promoted to Captain in 1841 and appointed second-in-command of Captain John Franklin's ill-fated expedition to chart the last unnavigated section of the North-West Passage, which departed in May 1845. Franklin's two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, became trapped in pack ice between September 1846 and April 1848. Franklin died during this period, and Crozier assumed command. He took the decision to abandon the ships and lead the surviving crew south by sled, but both he and his men perished from illness and exposure before reaching safety. The abandoned ships were not discovered until the 1850s, when the fate of the expedition also became known. The west point of King William Island, where the crew had wintered whilst trapped in the ice, was renamed Cape Crozier in his honour.

William Joseph Barre, the monument's designer, had established his architectural practice in Newry by 1850. Following his success in winning the competition to design the Ulster Hall in Belfast in 1859, he relocated his business to Belfast. He won the competition to design the Crozier Memorial in 1861 but died of illness in 1867, having had a short but distinguished career. The monument was listed Category B+ in 1976. It is situated immediately adjacent to Crozier House, his birthplace, enhancing its group value.