The HMS Vestal Monument, Happy Valley

More from The London Illustrated News on the May 1858 races at Hong Kong’s Happy Valley. The original artist was Yokohama-based Thomas Wirgman.

This final picture is interesting as it features The HMS Vestal Monument, a stone obelisk originally erected in 1847 by Captain Charles Talbot, the officers and crew of the British warship HMS Vestal (a sixth-rate frigate stationed in Chinese and Hong Kong waters during the 1840) to commemorate the sailors who died of illness while serving on the station. 

The obelisk stood at the corner of Queen’s Road East, Wong Nai Chung Road near Morrison Hill. It was moved in 1968 to Hong Kong Cemetery in Happy Valley.