40th Anniversary of the Solomon Browne & Union Star tragedy
7 October 2024
The 40 year anniversary of the Solomon Browne lifeboat and Union Star disaster was on 19 December 2021. To help our community express their grief and condolences to the families of those lost we organised an exhibition and wave of light around Mousehole.
All crew members of the Solomon Browne Lifeboat were Mousehole men, and this event inevitably made a huge and lasting impact in the Mousehole community. Because of this, we felt that as it was a significant anniversary we wanted to provide a suitable opportunity for people to remember, to pay their respects and to celebrate the bravery of these men. So, we organised a ‘wave of light’ on 19th December. This involved people lighting hundreds of candles that led from the beach to the hall, and we had a fascinating exhibition of images and videos in the hall.
There were hundreds of visitors to the exhibition with large queues all day and evening waiting to gain entry, and we raised over £2000 for the Solomon Browne Memorial Statue Fund.
The money that was raised during the exhibition in December went towards the building and installation of a memorial statue, which now stands on the clifftop above where the tragedy happened.
In September 2022, the Memorial Statue project team invited all of the families to attend the unveiling of the statue, and the hall hosted a live link up to this (for those who couldn’t make it to the clifftop) and a social event for all of the families. The families of the crew and passengers of the Union Star vessel (who also all lost their lives), have not had the opportunity to celebrate the loss and the lives of their loved ones alongside the Solomon Browne families before, and it was felt that now it was time to rectify this. The Union Star families (many of whom travelled from the Netherlands) came along and with the Mousehole families, were for the first time able to meet and share their sense of grief and pride in their family members. The event was an important marker in our community story, and one that will be remembered for many years to come. By attending our events or hiring the hall you are helping to fund our community projects. If you would like to make a donation you can do so here.
