Drinking fountain in memory of George Sparkes. Architect: Charles Barry, Jr. 1880. Location: Chelsea Embankment by Chelsea Old Church. Sparkes died in his 68th year in 1878, and the drinking fountain was put up by his widow. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

English and Latin Inscriptions. As the inscription notes, Sparkes had served in the East India Comany's Civil Service: he had been a judge in Madras. He was the author of a book entitled Man, Considered Socially and Morally (1876). This was largely a commentary on his commonplace book, but it seems to have been quite popular, because it ran to a second enlarged edition. (This repository of his wisdom is available as a free Ebook in Google Books.)

Photographs and text by Robert Freidus, with added comments by Jacqueline Banerjee. Formatting by George P. Landow. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. Click on the images for larger pictures.]


Last modified 1 December 2019