{"id":8534,"date":"2023-03-02T01:04:52","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T01:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/?page_id=8534"},"modified":"2023-03-03T10:41:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T10:41:48","slug":"garibaldi","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/people\/famous-visitors\/garibaldi\/","title":{"rendered":"Garibaldi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

General Giuseppe Garibaldi was one of the giants of the nineteenth century; a radical revolutionary freedom fighter and one of the principal architects of Italian unification and independence; the Nelson Mandela of the nineteenth century!  I would argue he was probably the most important historical figure to ever visit South Shields!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Garibaldi Galop (British Museum)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Garibaldi was born in 1807 in Nice.\u00a0 In 1832 he became a merchant navy captain and then became involved in revolutionary politics an action which resulted in a Genoese court sentencing him to death in his absence.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Engraving (Wikipedia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He fled to South America and led revolutionary movements there.  Between 1850 and 1853 he was working as a ship\u2019s captain mainly based around North America.  In November 1853 he was hired to take a large ship called the Commonwealth<\/em> from Baltimore to London he then went to collect \u201cCoals from Newcastle\u201d (Groan!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garibaldi in South Shields
<\/strong>Word of Garibaldi\u2019s forthcoming visit to Tyneside spread through the country\u2019s newspapers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This prompted a rather reserved Garibaldi to say:  \u201cI beg that there might be no public demonstration of any nature whatever on my account.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garibaldi spent most of his time on Tyneside staying with Joseph Cowen, the radical owner of the Newcastle Chronicle at his home at Tynemouth House (on the \u201cDark Side\u201d), where a blue plaque now commemorates his stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blue plaque (A. Bracci, Wikipedia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Friends of European Freedom held a meeting in Newcastle on March the 28th<\/sup>.  Penny subscriptions were requested from working people and enough money was raised to buy him a sword and telescope as gifts from the people of Tyneside.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Garibaldi 1861 (Library of Congress, Wikipedia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My guess is that Garibaldi was seen as both a soldier and a sailor and these gifts were perfect symbols of this.  They were engraved with the message:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresented to General Garibaldi by the People of Tyneside, friends of European Freedom. Newcastle-on-Tyne, April, 1854.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A farewell ceremony was organised by Joseph Cowen for April 11th<\/sup> 1854 on board his ship the Commonwealth<\/em> at the Pontop and Stanhope Drops in South Shields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Garibaldi gave a short speech:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGentlemen,\u2014I am very weak in the English language…This handsome sword shall never be drawn by me except in the cause of liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garibaldi later wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShould England at any time in a just cause need my arm, I am ready to unsheathe in her defence the noble and splendid sword received at your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Garibaldi London 1864 (Illustrated London News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Garibaldi left for Genoa on the 12th<\/sup> April 1854.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Commonwealth leaving the Tyne (Fine-Art-Emporium)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He proceeded to play a significant part towards the unification of Italy in 1871. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Garibaldi 1866 (Wikipedia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He died on the 2nd<\/sup> June 1882 of bronchitis at the age of 74.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Legacy
<\/strong>30 Years after his visit to South Shields and about two years after his death, Garibaldi Terrace on Ocean Road was named after him in 1884.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Garibaldi Terrace, Ocean Road, Terry Ford 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two Tyne Tugs bore the name Garibaldi<\/em> and one of the Tyne ferries was named Garibaldi<\/em> in his honour.

The Garibaldi Band lasted 50 years from 1865 till 1915 when the First World War ended their long running musical career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Garibaldi Band 1890, (STH0018618, South Tyneside Libraries)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Sources:
Anthony Wright: Garibaldi and the Tyneside Radicals (northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk)<\/a>
British Newspaper Archives
David Bell: Ships, Strikes and Garibaldi in Shields
Terry Ford

Photos:
British Museum
Terry Ford
Wikipedia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General Giuseppe Garibaldi was one of the giants of the nineteenth century; a radical revolutionary freedom fighter and one of the principal architects of Italian unification and independence; the Nelson Mandela of the nineteenth century!  I would argue he was probably the most important historical figure to ever visit South Shields! Garibaldi was born in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":8532,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8534","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8534"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8599,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8534\/revisions\/8599"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}