2-798-583 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Inauguration of the Gillespie Monument, at Comber, 1845. Opening of a memorial in County Down, (now Northern) Ireland. 'The [Rollo Gillespie] Monument itself is a beautiful Grecian pillar, fifty-five feet high...divided into compartments, on each of which is sculptured a representation of one of the principal scenes of Gillespie's brilliant career, and surmounted by a statue of the hero himself, standing in a graceful attitude, with his sword in his right hand...An inscription reads: '"Robert Rollo Gillespie. Major-General, and Knight Commander of the Most Honourable the Military Order of the Bath, born at Comber, 1766, after a brief but glorious career, fell in battle, before the fortress of Kalunga, on the 31st of October, 1814. His last words were - 'One shot more for the honour of Down.' A Monument at Meerut [Uttar Pradesh, India], in the East, marks the grave where his ashes rest'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.