2-791-475 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Monument to Grace Darling, 1844. In 1838 Grace Darling and her father, a local lighthouse keeper, heroically rescued victims of a the wreck of the SS 'Forfarshire' off the Farne Islands. She died from tuberculosis in 1842, aged just 26. 'Upon no occasion has the public sympathy been more worthily excited than by the untimely fate of Grace Darling; and, to perpetuate these sentiments, as well as to awaken kindred courage, and cherish kindred virtue, in the breasts of future generations, it has been resolved to erect a monument to the memory of the gentle maiden. Mr. Davies, the sculptor, of Newcastle, has received the commission to execute this interesting but unostentatious memorial, to be placed in St. Cuthbert's Chapel, on Fern Island. It will be, as the engraving shows, a cippus, of stone, six feet in height; with the cross of St. Cuthbert'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol I.