Lander's Monument is a memorial to

Richard Lander Richard Lemon Lander (8 February 1804 – 6 February 1834) was a British explorer of western Africa. He and his brother John were the first Europeans to follow the course of the River Niger, and discover that it led to the Atlantic. Biogr ...

on Lemon Street, in

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

, the county town of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

in south west England. The monument is a grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Background

Richard Lander (1804–1834) was an explorer born and educated in Truro. At the age of 13, he was sent as a servant on an expedition to the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. On his return to England, he served several wealthy families with whom he travelled in Europe. He assisted Major W. M. G. Colebrooke on an expedition to

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

(in modern-day South Africa) in 1823, then

Hugh Clapperton Bain Hugh Clapperton (18 May 1788 – 13 April 1827) was a British naval officer and explorer of West and Central Africa. Early career Clapperton was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, where his father, George Clapperton, was a surgeon. He gained so ...

on an expedition to West Africa in 1825. They explored the lands around the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Nige ...

until 1827, when Clapperton died. Lander made his way back to the coast and thence to England with Clapperton's papers. He published the papers largely unedited in 1829, along with his own journal, then in 1830 published an edited version in two volumes. In January 1830, Lander and his brother,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

, departed Truro on an expedition to find the source and trace the course of the Niger River. They reached

Yelwa Yelwa is a town in Kebbi State, Nigeria on the Niger River and the A1 highway. The town is often referred to as "Yelwa, Yauri", after the Emirate and Local Government Administration it is in, and is not the Yelwa where the Yelwa Massacre took p ...

(in modern-day

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

) before navigating downstream in canoes, becoming the first Europeans to discover that the Niger drained into the Atlantic. Lander was awarded the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

gold medal and the brothers' journals were published by John Murray to great acclaim, then translated into multiple languages. Richard died in 1834 from an infected gunshot wound sustained on another African expedition.

Design and history

The monument consists of a tall

Doric column The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

by the architect Philip Sambell, completed in 1835, surmounted by a statue of Lander by the sculptor

Neville Northey Burnard Nevil or Neville Northey Burnard (11 October 1818 – 27 November 1878) was a 19th-century English sculptor best known for his portrait figures. Life Burnard was born in the village of Altarnun, on the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. He was th ...

in 1852. The building work was executed by Bowden of Helston. The column is in dressed grey

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and stands on a substantial square plinth carved from

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

. The site was donated by Sir Charles Lemon, a local public figure. The monument fell over in 1836, the year after its construction, but was repaired. The monument is one of several to Lander. His wife and daughter erected a memorial in the

Savoy Chapel The King's Chapel of St John the Baptist in the Precinct of the Savoy, also known as the King's Chapel of the Savoy (called The Queen's Chapel during much of modern history in the reigns of Victoria and Elizabeth II), is a church in the City of ...

in London, but this was destroyed by fire in 1864. The RGS paid for a stained-glass window as a replacement but this was destroyed by enemy bombing during the Second World War.

References

{{coord, 50.25938, -5.05486, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Monuments and memorials in Cornwall Truro Grade II* listed buildings in Cornwall Grade II* listed monuments and memorials