Two Upnor Brothers Remembered

In the Out and About pages in the Peninsular Times May 2006 issue, there was a feature on the news that some artefacts from Henry Morton Stanley's expedition to discover the source of the Nile had been uncovered at the Guildhall Museum.  It mentioned that Stanley was accompanied by two brothers from Upnor.

This triggered a memory for Mrs Sylvia Scott, from Frindsbury, who searched through her old family papers to find out more.  There she found a letter written many years ago by her late father in response to much earlier coverage of the trip.

The letter reads:

Dear Sir, Reading your article on the Stanley expedition, it was quite interesting as my grandfather's two uncles went with him.  They were the two Pococks.  I have a cutting from a paper or book dated 1901 stating that their mother thought she saw Edward in a vision in her garden.  Their father's brother was coxswain to Sir John Franklin's ill fated expedition. There is a plaque to the two brothers in St Nicolas and Upnor Church.

Edward and Francis Pocock lived in Upnor, along with several brothers and sisters and their father Harry Pocock, a fisherman and his wife Ann.  They were two of only three white men who accompanied Stanley on his trip into the Congo.  Unfortunately, both brothers died on the trip.

As Mrs Scott's father points out, there is a wonderful plaque on the wall in the church at Upnor which tells not only of their fate but also of their uncle Francis Pocock who died on an expedition to the Antarctic.  A true family of adventurers. 

 

[With acknowledgements and credits to Peninsular Times]