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Behind the East End of the Church is a memorial to four crew of HMS Eurydice [22] which sank off the Isle of Wight in 1878. Only two of them are named; David Bennett AB and Alfred Barnes OS. It was one of the worst peacetime disasters after the wooden training ship capsized during a sudden snowstorm. Only two of the 319 crew survived and sail training ceased. The loss of the Eurydice is the subject of poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The event was witnessed by many in Ventnor, including the young Winston Churchill. Various ghost stories abound, including from Prince Edward, who claims to have seen the ghostly image of the ship while filming in 1998. At this point you can look over the wall to Tudor Close or due south to William Nicholson’s studio (Nicholson was an artist who lived briefly at The Grange, subsequently occupied by Charles Neville - grave [47]).

_{The Eurydice - it concerned thee, O Lord:
Three hundred souls, O alas! on board,
Some sleep unawakened, all un-
warned, eleven fathoms fallen.}

_{'The Loss of the Eurydice' - Gerard Manley Hopkins 1878}

_{HMS Eurydice, painted in Liverpool 1871}

_{The wreck of the Eurydice}

_{Eurydice being towed into Portsmouth harbour, 1st September 1878}