đź“Ť Crimean War Memorial
Tucked slightly up the Promenade from Cheltenham’s more prominent war memorials, near the Queen’s Hotel, stands a lesser-known but historically rich monument: the Crimean War Memorial. Though modest in size, this striking structure carries a legacy that stretches back over 160 years.
The memorial was unveiled in July 1858, just two years after the end of the Crimean War (1853 to 1856), a brutal and far-reaching conflict that claimed the lives of many, including 27 men from Cheltenham. Their names are still inscribed here, etched into history.
Originally, the centrepiece of this memorial was a Russian cannon captured at Sebastopol and gifted to Cheltenham by Lord Panmure, the Secretary at War. The gun was mounted on a cast-iron plinth, proudly displayed outside the Queen’s Hotel. Sadly, the cannon and one of the two original gun carriages were removed and melted down during the Second World War, a fate shared by many war trophies across Britain.
What remains today is the surviving iron plinth, now repurposed as a flower planter but still surrounded by ornate spiked railings and topped with a decorative gilded arch and lantern. Hanging from the arch is a detailed "VR" (Victoria Regina) badge, entwined with laurel leaves, a symbol of imperial victory and remembrance.
In gold lettering around the base, you’ll find inscriptions such as:
“Taken at Sebastopol 1856”
“To the memory of the men connected with Cheltenham who fell in the Crimea”
Though the cannon is gone, the memorial remains a powerful and rare example of Victorian war commemoration, especially for a conflict often overshadowed by the world wars that followed. The entire structure was carefully restored in 2008, ensuring its continued presence in Cheltenham’s civic landscape.
The final coordinates are just a short walk away. To locate them you need to gather the information from the War Memorial...
What regiment was Captain Every assigned to? ABÂ
What regiment was Major B.D.Gilby assigned to? CD
How many soldiers listed on the memorial had the surname Evans? EÂ
The cache can be found at:
N51 53. (C+B) (C-D) (E+B) W002 04. (A*E) (A-B) (D)
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Just-Us-Two know first at justustwo1013@gmail.com so they can keep track of the memorial numbers and names to avoid any duplication.