Captain Smith's Statue

A statue stands in Lichfield’s Beacon Park which I initially mistook to be King George V, seeing as his father, Edward VII, stands at the other end. It is actually another bearded chap of his reign, Edward John Smith, Captain of the infamous RMS Titanic, which sank in April, 1912, with great loss of life.

Smith had no obvious connection to Lichfield, and it is thought that his home town of Hanley and his connections to Stoke on Trent were deemed a little embarrassing to their residents in the aftermath of Britain’s greatest maritime disaster. The good people of Lichfield seemed more willing to accomodate his statue, but even some of them voiced objections. Although the sinking of the great ship was a national disgrace, with inadequate provision of lifeboats, an existing fire in the coal stores and various silly boasts made about how unsinkable she was, Smith himself is not generally awarded the blame. Indeed, his stoic insistence of going down with the ship demonstrated his personal courage and firmly held principles.

The inscription on the statue concludes with Captain Smith’s final words:

'Be British.'

As one can hardly alter one’s nationality, at least not on a sinking liner, he was presumably referring to some perceived national characteristic for which the British were then renowned, such as fortitude or courage. The British nationality and its traits are in serious decline, if ever they existed in the first place. The Christian, however, is enjoined to ‘be the Christian’ in both life and death. And for what is he or she renowned?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: Galatians 5:22-23a

Be Christian.