Memorials to Navy sailors who fought slavery

sir – Admiral Lord West of Spithead (Letters, June 20) says he is unaware of any memorial to Royal Navy personnel who died suppressing the slave trade.

In St Luke’s Church at the former Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar in Gosport is a memorial to Commodore William Jones who, as commander of the West Africa Squadron, was instrumental in the release of 6,738 slaves. Although his was but a small part in an exceptionally long campaign, we are immensely proud of him.

Lt-cdr Mark Trasler RN (rtd)

Gosport, Hampshire

sir – There is a memorial on Ascension Island to 23 members of the crew of HMS Bann and 50 marines stationed there who died of yellow fever in 1823.

The Bann, which was part of the West Africa Squadron tasked with suppressing the Atlantic slave trade, picked up the fever in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and by the time it reached Ascension, the captain was delirious and 13 of the crew were dead, including the second-in-command, leaving my great grandfather, Lieutenant John Hudson, in charge. By the time he left to sail the Bann back to Freetown, the fever had spread to the island garrison.

Before originally sailing from Freetown, 11 of the Bann’s officers and 62 men had left to serve in prize crews, so it was only thanks to the 29 West African seamen on board – Kroomen, as they were called – who were largely immune to “yellow Jack”, that there were enough hands to man the ship. Hudson had already survived six years in the Squadron, against the odds, and was invalided home in 1823.

Roger Hudson

London W8