SP3747 : Obelisk memorial to Lieut. Col. F. S. Miller, former Radway Grange estate below Edgehill: 3
taken 17 years ago, near to Edgehill, Warwickshire, England
The pedestal of the obelisk bears an inscription that reads:
This obelisk was erected by / Charles Chambers Esqre. R.N. / in 1854 to commemorate the / Battle of Waterloo / where the VIth. Inniskilling Dragoons / were commanded by / Lieut. Col.F.S.Miller / who, for his gallant conduct / during the action, in which he was / very severely wounded, / was made a Commander of the Most / Honourable Order of the Bath.
The VIth Inniskilling Dragoons were a heavy cavalry regiment based for many years at Ballinaslo, Ireland. At Waterloo on the 18th of June 1815 they fought in two actions which brought about the defeat of the French under Napoleon Bonaparte. They were led by Miller when his fellow squadron commanders were disabled. Miller himself suffered various wounds including a shattered thigh. He was still recovering in Brussels in 1816, probably attended by Chambers, a naval surgeon, long after the Inniskillings had returned to England, where they were fêted as the deciding force at Waterloo.
Charles Chambers died in 1854. The obelisk is his touching, last tribute to Miller. The two men were friends, neighbours and cousins by marriage.
The site of the obelisk was originally a water feature designed to be seen from Radway Grange, the family home, below. It was formed in the eighteenth century by Miller's grandfather, the landscape gardener Sanderson Miller. The slender obelisk, probably constructed with locally-quarried 'ironstone', is dwarfed by towering lime trees.
Reference
Warwickshire Gardens Trust. The Obelisks of Warwickshire. Studley: Brewin Books Ltd., 2013. ISBN 978-1-85858-515-4