Person    | Male  Born 7/11/1728  Died 14/2/1779

Captain James Cook

Maritime explorer and cartographer. Born near Middlesbrough. The first to map Newfoundland, explored around Australia and the Hawaiian Islands and made the first circumnavigation of New Zealand.

Killed in Kealakekua Bay by Hawaiian villagers during a fracas concerning the theft of one of Cook's small boats. Cook was held in high esteem by the chiefs so his body was given the same funeral rites that one of their elders would have received. It was disembowelled, baked and the bones cleaned. Following appeals from his comrades the remains were eventually returned for burial at sea.

2024: Cook has become a controversial figure, representing all the worst of imperialism. The Daily Mail reported "Captain Cook statue is sawn down in Melbourne with the words 'the colony will fall' sprayed in red on the plinth just hours before Australia Day".

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Captain James Cook

Commemorated ati

Barking Abbey

Barking Abbey Was founded by St Erkenwald in the year 666. Destroyed by the D...

Read More

Captain Cook - E1

{Left-most panel:} He surveyed the St Lawrence River in 1759. In three voyag...

Read More

Captain Cook - E1 plaque - gone

This terracotta-coloured plaque is now in Australia (see eHive) with one of t...

Read More

Captain Cook - The Highway

The plaque gives Cook's address as 126 Upper Shadwell. Horward's 1799 map gi...

Read More

Captain James Cook statue

The original inscription stopped after "New Zealand." In 1928 the British Em...

Read More

Show all 9

Other Subjects

Francis Dunn

Francis Dunn

Role on the lost expedition: Petty officer on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial
John Diggle

John Diggle

Role on the lost expedition: Petty officer on SS Terror. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial
John Gregory

John Gregory

Role on the lost expedition: Officer on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial
Thomas Honey

Thomas Honey

Role on the lost expedition: Officer on SS Terror. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial
William Jerry

William Jerry

Role on the lost expedition: Able seaman on SS Terror. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Captain Henry Penton, MP

Captain Henry Penton, MP

MP for Winchester who gave his name to the Pentonville area of London by building in the late 1700s The Penton Estate.

Person, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Bridewell Palace / Prison

Bridewell Palace / Prison

Built by Henry VIII, who lived there 1515-23. It deteriorated so that Edward VI gave it to the City of London who then used it as a prison, hospital (actually school) and workrooms. "Bridewell" was...

Building, Law, Property, Royalty

2 memorials
Robert Edward Ryder, VC

Robert Edward Ryder, VC

In 2009 we were contacted by Alexander Ferguson Moran (Fergus), saying his granddaughter’s husband’s great grandfather was Robert Ryder, VC.  Fergus could not easily get to London to investigate th...

Person, Art, Artists' Model

War served, WW1
2 memorials
Robert Milligan

Robert Milligan

Merchant. Born in Dumfries. He grew up on his family's sugar plantation in Jamaica, and moved to London in 1779. He headed a group of powerful businessmen, who planned and built the West India Dock...

Person, Commerce, Race Issues, Caribbean Islands, Scotland

2 memorials