| Summary : A commemorative obelisk erected circa 1853-5 by the Admiralty outside the boundary fence of the Royal Hospital for Seamen (later Royal Naval College) to the north-west of King Charles' Building. Designed by the Architect to the Hospital, it comprises three steps of polished Aberdeen red granite resting on a square stone plinth. It commemorates a French naval lieutenant who lost his life in the Artic while conveying dispatches for Sir Edward Belcher, who was searching for the lost explorer Sir John Franklin. On the south face is an inscription "To the intrepid young Bellot of the French Navy who, in the endeavour to rescue Franklin, shared the fate and the glory of that illustrious navigator. From his British admirers 1853". |