The sad story of Dr Sidney Bernard
Local interest piece on BBC Southeast current,y scheduled for Wednesday 9 September at 6.30 pm: Dr Sidney Bernard, Stangate Quarantine Station and the brave doctor’s burial site – “the loneliest grave in England.”
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Many years ago I served as an engineer on BP tankers there was a boat called ‘Sidney Bernard’ which used to bring out the ships stores it was run I think by Ivan Dollimore. I often used to wonder about the origins of the name which I only discovered a couple of years ago.
Hi Swalesailor,
I read this article (see link) in the Journal of the RN Medical Service some time between 2002-2005, and spent a long time trying to find out what happened to the boat. I suppose it has been scrapped long since?
https://archive.org/details/JRNMSVOL38Images/page/n229/mode/2up
The grave slab is now one metre below the surface. I wonder if it sank into the soft mud of Burntwick Island or if the mud has built up by that amount in 175 years.
The saltings have built up over the last 100 years since land was flooded and let to the sea.
Over past ten years the level has risen by around 10 cm, which equates to approximately 10 cm per decade. One of the corners has a grassy mound over it now.
When the plaque was retrieved in c1952 there was around 20 to 25 cm silt over the grave slab. So the siltation has been happening at a fairly steady and consistent rate.
I would ask that people don’t go traipsing around looking for grave: Sidney Bernard should continue to rest in peace.
This (linked) was the situation in 1951; I think silt has been washed in by the tide, and water levels are rising.
https://archive.org/details/JRNMSVOL37Images/page/n133/mode/2up
Further to my comments: I have received a youtube link of the film, uncut from broadcasting editor.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BRD8fgjchU&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1KI_a1EMp62AJr3o5UE4ctwmLQTt0YZS1w9trmVGT9_6QGbfD9TIyErUs
That’s great to have the link, Nick – the BBC picked my brains before filming but didn’t tell me when it was broadcast – I caught something very, very brief but it didn’t seem to be the whole story.
I recall that you were one of the first people who consulted with me about Sidney Bernard, when I was still relatively new in post at the Institute of Naval Medicine. It took years but I eventually found the plaque from the grave which had been in the chapel at RN Hospital Chatham – it was in the basement and is now on display!
I am still at INM looking after the Historic Collections but will be retiring in October.
The Story of the HMS Eclair (the vessel on which Dr. Bernard had returned to England) is scandalous, too. I have researched the story from the very beginnings in 1844 when HMS Eclair started to control slave ships on the west African Coast until it’s return to England in October 1845 and the following examinations about the epidemic disease that wiped out at least half of Boa Vista’s population – disease and quarantine as a an element of economic relations in the 19th Century. The history of the HMS Hankey which introduced yellow fever to the US fifty years before this happening is shocking, too. Unfortunately, my text is in German, but if you like to read it don’t hesitate to contact me on my website. Claus Donau, Basel/Switzerland
Hi Claus
Thank you for your interesting comment on the article about Dr Sidney Bernard and for your offer of your account of the tragic story.
However I doubt of there are more than a few around here who can read German well enough to understand it.
best wishes
Tony Lavelle
MSBA Webmaster
Hallo Claus,
I too have researched the story, although I have not produced anything except in parts of presentations which were reprinted in the Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service.
If anybody else is interested, many of the original printed sources are available online and I can give directions.
I am interested, indeed. Where and how can I find informations? Maybe we can share our sources and texts (unfortunately mine are in German since I’m German, but anyway). Best from Basel, Switzerland. Claus
Hi Jane, I’m very interested in the story of Sidney Bernard and would love to know where the plaque is which was on his grave. You had mentioned that it was in the chapel at the Royal Naval Hospital Chatham but I cannot work out where this is! Any googling of the chapel indicates it is no longer there. Is there any way you could point me in the right direction please so I could go to see the plaque? I would love to do a story about him to celebrate him on the anniversary of his death on 9th October. Thank you very much. Nicola White.
Hi Nicola,
Following a chance remark To my sister & brother-in-law about a month ago,I was later directed to your You-Tube video on Captain Sidney Bernard,R.N. I was amazed to find this & thoroughly enjoyed your post. You stated in the programme that you hoped to find the long lost memorial plaque of this remarkable,brave man. I believe that plaque has now been found. But I am pretty certain that I have the descriptive plaque that tells the doctor’s story & would have hung under the memorial in the chapel of Chatham R.N. Hospital in 1951. My late brother rescued this plaque c. late 1980’s from Haslar R.N. Hospital,Gosport,when there was a lot of building going on & this item was about to be put in skip.I well recall my brother saying at the time,as he screwed the plaque onto the lid of his writing bureau —–“It was somebody’s memorial,& as such,someone ought to take care of it. ”
Well,it has been taken care of here for 40 years now, & is in excellent condition.It would be nice if it could be somehow re-use with the other plaque.
Info for all: The plaque resides safely as detailed in my book which awoke this story. Book is: Swinging the Lamp Thames Estuary Tidal Tales, published by Fonthill, 2016.
It is in the care of the ‘Historic Collections of the Institute of Naval Medicine in Gosport, Hampshire. During my research and writing, I sent the Collection’s library a copy of how the grave then looked. The book has a pencil sketch.
The BBC Southeast broadcast came much later.
As said, I fervently believe the site should be left in peace and for nature to take its course.
Nick
Update to my post 6th July 2024.
The plaque I mention has been verified as the descriptive
plaque that hung beneath the memorial in the chapel of
Chatham RN Hospital in 1951. It has now been donated to
the Institute of Naval Medicine,Alverstoke,Gosport.
When we had a Royal Dockyard & Navy base at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey the grave was rightly and properly tended, I personally think it is an absolute disgrace. I would like to visit the site and will see if there is anything that can be done. I understand that the publicly funded Quango Natural England don’t like people to visit the nearby Deadman’s Island where countless sailors were buried, I’m told that these pompous officials are failing to prevent the tidal erosion and through their inaction many of the human remains are allowed to slip into the Swale. Hardly the respect we should show to those who served our Country.
Lt Peter MacDonald RNR retired Isle of Sheppey Kent
I hope you might enjoy this video which I have made to commemorate the 178th anniversary of the death of Sidney Bernard – today being the 9th October 2023.
https://youtu.be/Y1rWl75EBIs?si=6HwvZ1yiSbQLVPIK
Dear Nicola, I did like the video, many of the burials on dead man’s Island were not convicts but servicemen accommodated on Hulk ships as they were in many Royal Naval Ports. There were also Napoleonic prisoners of war. Dr Bernard was of course an officer & I understand the powers that be decided to bury him on Burtwick Island possibly due to Yellow fever infection which is why he was laid to rest there. I would like to visit the grave .
During the last war, a number of ladies were transported from Sheerness Dockyard each day by boat, left there each day to assemble munitions, being ladies with very nimble fingers they were first class @ the job. My maternal Grandmother’s youngest sister Auntie Flo was one of these. Peter MacDonald
Dear Nicola,
I have again re-visited the video, whilst I would not in any way interfere with the grave, I also would like to pay my respects. I would be grateful if I could be contacted perhaps in the spring. The Shrubsole (sorry about the spelling) were a local family on the Isle of Sheppey. Despite my age I am an elected Member of Swale Borough Council, Sheerness Town Council, & Minster Parish Council. Wearing another hat as a CWGC Volunteer, I look after around 200 War Graves on Sheppey & have now been asked to look after the Sheppey MOD graves, between Wars & post War. Thanks for an excellent video Peter
Hi Jane, wow I’ve just seen your comment. That’s amazing that he has the descriptive plaque. I’m glad it was rescued and is safe. Nicola
Hi Nicola, Thanks for your post. Since my brother passed on, I’ve often wished to place this plaque somewhere appropriate before
it was lost forever. I am thankful that I have achieved that. Not only for Captain Bernard, but also for my brother. Thankyou,Jane.
I would be very grateful if I can be advised of the wording on the plaque, The Stangate station was of course under the Royal Naval Dockyard Sheerness, The Sheppey War Memorial Trust have erected a very large Portland Stone Memorial wall with the engraved names of 989 names of service people whose names were missing from the Sheerness War Memorial, These are of course first & second World War casualties. I look after some 200+ War Graves under the CWGC Eyes On Hands on Scheme for which I have been CWGC trained. Whilst Dr Barnard died long before the First World War, I would like to erect a MOD style commemoration on our Sheerness site bringing to the public notice of the Hero Dr Barnard’s fate, any info. would help Peter MacDonald
Hi Peter, As requested I send you the words on the plaque :
The memorial brass above was found on the mudflats of Burntwick Island at the mouth of the Medway..
It records the death of Sydney Bernard. One of seven surgeons who served on board HMS Eclair in 1845 while she was engaged
off the west coast of Africa. And during her passage home, the yellow fever carried off more than half her ships company. All the surgeons took the infection. Four died: Among them Sydney Bernard who had joined the ship at Madeira on her way back to England.
After the Great War the sea began to encroach on Burntwick Island. The grave and tombstone are now submerged in mud. This shield which reproduces the original epitaph was fixed to the surrounding ralings to mark the spot.
It was placed in this church in 1951.
{The whole of this text is in upper case on the plaque}
AS I state in my post on this site,Dec.17th 2024, this plaque has now been donated to the Institute of Naval Medicine,Alverstoke.
My 6th July post relates how the plaque was rescued from a skip at Haslar R.N Hospital.
Hope this is useful to you, Jane.