Crowds gathered to remember a former Weymouth MP and campaigner in a public dedication ceremony. 

Family, friends and society members came to remember Thomas Fowell Buxton, former MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis and anti-slavery campaigner, at the Buxton Monument in the ceremony yesterday organised by the Thomas Fowell Buxton Society. 

The monument, at Bincleaves Green, follows a long campaign for the activist to be recognised locally.

The monument was designed by Peter Loizou, then a student at Weymouth College. The 144 stones of the monument were carved by Weymouth College students under the tutelage of Master Craftsman Richard Mortimer and assembled and erected by Mitchell Construction and Albion Stone. It cost around £40,000 and was paid for entirely by public donations and fundraising events by the society.

Sir Crispin Buxton, 8th baronet, said: “It’s an amazing monument. For the family it’s particularly touching that the people of Weymouth should remember him. We’ve all grown up with his legacy. 

“It’s humbling. For the first time in my life, to have other people reflect back on his achievements, it’s just amazing.”

The campaign was given a boost thanks to a National Lottery grant of £4,900 to support educational work, which went towards building a new information board, unveiled by Angus Campbell, HM Lord Lieutenant of Dorset.

He said: “It is a great privilege for me to unveil the board here, and to have learnt about him.

“I found out that of 200 offences that could end in hanging, he reduced the number to eight.”

Thomas Fowell Buxton campaigned for the abolition of slavery in the 19th century, and was also one of the founding members of the RSPCA.

Cllr Kevin Brookes, Mayor of Weymouth and Portland, said: “When I was the deputy Mayor, I started to read a little about him. He was an amazing person.”

“I’m really pleased with the attendance today. Once again, it shows how good we are down here at taking part in these ceremonial events.”

The Weymouth monument complements other memorials to him in Westminster Abbey, Victoria Tower Gardens (London), Norwich Cathedral, St George’s Cathedral (Sierra Leone) and Mico University in Jamaica.

Lynwood Newman, a member of the society who worked to put the ceremony together, said: “It’s rewarding. The students have been working on it [the monument] since 2010.”

“They finished it in October/November last year and helped assembled it. It’s great coming here and watching people put it together. I said to one of the students, it’s like a song, it will live forever.”