Passed By…
Then he rose defiant, across the English channel staring,
In a dress uniform of the Bengal Regiment and proud.
Sword drawn, he was someone to follow and admire
With a plumed shako atop his military head, eyes glaring.
A cannon lay behind his offensive pose, bullish and not cowed
By the ungrateful enemies’ loathing of his British Empire…
Now it rises near a seaside promenade of uncaring,
Often ignorant residents and visitors and is passed by,
By turning traffic, the hurried and the totally unaware.
Dulled by age and slashed green by the constant tarnishing,
To many it is little more than a bollard, incongruous and high,
Yet it lauds Eastbourne’s heroes with the deeds of its dead to share…
Pete Ray
15th March 2023
The unusual figure in a Victorian uniform stands proud but somehow gets passed by…
A splendid monument in Eastbourne, Sussex…
The plaques are reliefs showing soldiers of the Royal Sussex Regiment in the Black Mountain and Tirah expeditions...
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