Pagets and Westmacotts in the Mediterranean

At the gateway to the Mediterranean, in Gibraltar’s King’s Chapel, is sited an intriguing marble funerary monument to a distinguished British naval officer. The small, easily overlooked memorial to the Hon. William Paget was installed after the end of 1794 following the untimely death of this young officer off the coast of Minorca, on the Romney, the ship he captained in several local victories. While relatively simple in design, it bears a long and fulsome dedicatory inscription and the signature of the London-based sculptor, Richard Westmacott the Younger. Works by this artist, second and most renowned in a family dynasty of eminent craftsmen, tend to be little known outside Britain, appearing infrequently in foreign settings, and his commission to memorialise a member of a prominent British family represents a unique conjunction of art, aristocracy and naval achievement in the Mediterranean. A number of connections are drawn from this conjunction to highlight the neglected significance of this seemingly modest monument.