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Images above and right By Clem Rutter, Rochester Kent - Own work, CC BY 2.5
Chatham Naval Memorial
Kent, England.
Chatham Naval Memorial commemorates 8517 sailors of the First World War and 10098 of the Second World War.
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After the First World War members of the Royal Navy who had no known grave, the majority of deaths having occurred at sea, had no permanent memorial and so an Admiralty committee recommended that the three manning ports in Great Britain - Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth - should have identical memorials of unmistakable naval form, an obelisk, which would serve as a leading mark for shipping.
The memorials were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer with sculpture by Henry Poole. The Chatham Naval Memorial was unveiled by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) on 26 April 1924.
After the Second World War the naval memorials were extended to provide space for commemorating the naval dead without graves of that war, but since the three sites were dissimilar, a different architectural treatment was required for each. The architect for the Second World War extension at Portsmouth was Sir Edward Maufe (who also designed the Air Forces memorial at Runnymede) and the additional sculpture was by Charles Wheeler and William McMillan. The Extension was unveiled by the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother on 29 April 1953.
Names of those lost in the Second World War are recorded on panels set into the low walls of an enclosure added to the north, leading to a barrel-vaulted pavilion on each side. The extension was unveiled by the Duke of Edinburgh on 15 October 1952.
Notable sailors commemorated at Chatham
World War One
Victoria Crosses
- Skipper Thomas Crisp, VC., DSC H. M. Smack "Nelson", Royal Naval Reserve, died 15th August 1917, aged 41. Panel 25.
- Major Francis John William Harvey, VC. H. M. S. Lion, Royal Marine Light Infantry, died 31st May 1916, aged 43. Panel 18.
World war Two
Victoria Crosses
- Captain Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen, VC. H. M. S. Jervis Bay, Royal Navy, died 5th November 1940, aged 49. Panel 34. 1.
