At the most southerly tip of Antigua, The Lookout, part of the Shirley Heights military complex, commands a breathtaking view over the whole of English Harbour. Behind the catchment on the highest ground, 490ft (150m) above sea level, was the Signal Station from which a system of flags was used by day and guns by night to convey messages to St, John’s by way of Great Fort George on Monk’s Hill.
The Shirley Heights military complex also included a guard house, magazine and kitchen, officers’ quarters, adjoining parade grounds, a 40-bed hospital, canteen, and a cemetery. An obelisk in the cemetery commemorates the officers and men of the 54th Regiment (2nd Battalion Dorsets) who died in service in the West Indies between 1840 and 1851.
