The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-08 00:00:00

PROPOSED MEMORIAL TO LIEU-

TENANT WAGHORN.

In London, on Monday, the Lord Mayor presided
at a meeting held at the Mansion House in support
of the movement to erect a national memorial to
Lieutenant Waghorn, the pioneer and founder of the
overland route to the East. The chairman, in opening
the proceedings, said that they were met in support
of an object which ought to appeal to every English-
man, and he regretted that it had not been earlier
undertaken by the country. Lieutenant Waghorn
was one of those men who had written his name in
the history of the world, who had conferred very
great obligations, not only on the country which he
served, but on the whole human race. It was very
natural that the town in which he was born (Chatham)
should feel anxious to erect a statue to his memory.
Lieutenant Waghorn had, unfortunately, died in
poverty, and he had relatives living; and it was pro-
posed that the surplus of the money subscribed should
be given to them.

Sir Arthur Otway moved the first resolution, which
was, "That the distinguished services of Lieutenant
Waghorn, RN., the pioneer and founder of the over-
land route to the East, demands the grateful recogni-
tion of the country." Mr. Gorst seconded the motion,
which was supported by Sir Jolla Eardley-Wilmot,
M.P., and carried.

A further resolution was adopted to the effect that
a national memorial commemorative of the services of
Lieutenant Waghorn be erected in Chatham, and that
a committee be formed to co-operate, through the
High Constable of Chatham, with the local com-
mittee, and empowering them to apply a portion of
the fund raised after defraying the cost of the statue
to the benefit of the surviving sister of Lieutenant
Waghorn.

The Daily News, noticing the projected memorial
to Lieut. Waghorn in a leader, says: Lieutenant
Waghorn has been dead four-and-thirty years, and
as the generation which was most familiar with his
services allowed him to die in poverty, the new
generation is resolving to do something more
than merely build his monument. The founder
of the Overland Route was one of those
energetic and capable men who think more of
their object than of themselves and attain
successes in the happy results of which they have
little personal share. When he first began to call
attention to Egypt as the true highway to India, he
was regarded as a dreamer; but his dream came
true. The desert journey across the Isthmus of Suez
and the voyage down the Red Sea were easily shown
on the map to be the near way to the East; but it
needed some daring to face the dangers of the
route. The isthmus is now crossed by rail and
canal; but in 1840 there was no road. Lieutenant
Waghorn built at his own expense caravanserais
in the desert between Cairo and Suez; but the
journey across Egypt in waggons was regarded for
years as a serious adventure. It was not till 1845
that Lieutenant Waghorn succeeded in getting the
mail through to Bombay in thirty days, and not till
1852 that the railway from Alexandria to Cairo was
opened. Lieutenant Waghorn lived to see this in
full operation, and the railway across the desert from
Cairo to Suez projected. The opening of this last line in
1857 completed the success of the overland route, which
henceforth became what Lieutenant Waghorn
had predicted it would become, and had spent his
life in making it, the high road between England and
India. It has now in its turn been almost superseded
by the Suez Canal, which is itself only the final com-
pletion of the work Waghorn began. Sir Arthur
Otway said, with great truth, that the scheme of M.
de Lesseps for piercing the isthmus was mainly ren-
dered possible by the establishment of, the overland
route.