My most recent post, a revised version of my elegy for the ‘naval pub’, mentioned the issue of memorabilia and wider heritage which is lost for ever if such a pub is insensitively refurbished or simply closed for good. Over the years on this blog, I’ve also run an occasional series called ‘Dead Admirals Society’, publicising some of the more obscure memorials to seafarers (not just admirals!) that can be found through the length and breadth of the UK. Clearly, both of these themes are connected, just as they are in geography – my village certainly isn’t the only one in Britain where the church and the pub are immediately adjacent to each other – but virtually no study seems to have been carried out on this subject. There’s a database of maritime memorials as an offshoot of the National Maritime Museum website, but this is very far from comprehensive; nor is Barbara Tomlinson’s excellent book Commemorating the Seafarer, which I recently acquired. Above all, no attempt whatsoever seems to have been made to list naval memorabilia that survives in, say, churches (for example, historic ships’ bells, or white ensigns flown by famous ships or in famous battles), non-maritime museums, civic buildings, stately homes, and less likely locations. Few things can probably beat the incongruity of the former clock from Deptford dockyard ending up as the centrepiece of Thamesmead shopping centre, but fascinating and important pieces of naval heritage can be found in all sorts of unlikely places. Clearly, a comprehensive listing of such items would be at best a Herculean task, at worst (and probably more likely) a complete impossibility, but maybe as a first step, those interested in such matters could be a bit more proactive in recording and publicising any items they come across. For my part, I’ll expand my ‘Dead Admirals Society’ posts to include items that aren’t necessarily memorials in the narrow sense of the term. Here are a few to start with!
And, following on, I’ve been looking at Barbara Tomlinsons book you referred to. Some disappointments – no mention of that magnificent memorial obelisk to Nelson’s Hardy in Dorset, and whilst she refers to the Napoleonic memorial to seamen in St Georges Church, Deal she seems not to have noticed that the churchyard contains a square column memorial to Captain Edward Parker, paid for by Nelson, who leant against the yew tree in the churchyard and wept at the funeral for his ‘Poor Parker’, who died of wounds sustained in the disastrous attack on Boulogne in 1804. Nelson personally paid for the memorial on which, every year on Trafalgar Day a wreath is placed by an anonymous donor.
Also in the churchyard is the private memorial cross ‘to the bright and beautiful memory’ of Sub Lieutenant Arthur Tisdall RNVR VC, erected in 1916 by his father, the Reverend William Tisdall, who was the incumbent at the time. Arthur was a gifted Cambridge scholar killed at Gallipoli on St Georges Day 1915 when serving with the Anson Battalion of the Royal Naval Division and awarded the VC for his gallantry in rescuing men under fire. Added to the memorial in 1916 is the name of his younger brother, John, who was killed on the Somme in August 1916 whilst serving with The Kings Own (Liverpool) Regiment in which regiment two of my mother’s brothers also died on the Somme in July that year. Interestingly, the memorial was in recent years restored by the Bedford School Old Boys, the Tisdall brothers being former pupils.
Another unique memorial to the Royal Naval Air Service exists in the form of a well head on Hawkshill Down, Walmer just a mile or so from Deal at the site of the WW1 RNAS aerodrome and which commemorates pilots who flew from Hawkshill to France and died there. All the twenty or so names on the memorial are recipients of decorations, a testament to their collective gallantry.
The large and imposing granite Dover Patrol WW1 memorial stands on the bleak cliff top (near a convenient cafe) at St Margarets-at-Cliffe and looks across the English Channel to its fellow memorial on Cap Gris-Nez, commemorating all those lives lost in the defence of the narrow seas.
As you say, Barbara Tomlinsons book is excellent, but not comprehensive, and many naval and maritime memorials can be cited which are or were perhaps worthy of inclusion. I also found disappointing that in a publication carrying the imprint of the National Maritime Museum the interesting illustrations are in many cases indistinct and all are uncoloured.
Fascinating information, David, and I couldn’t agree more about the illustrations in the Tomlinson book – a perennial problem with certain publishers who shall remain nameless (partly because I do the odd bit of work for them from time to time…)
That part of East Kent has so many fascinating historical maritime connections – my parents lived there for many years – that the list is almost endless ! I’ve played cricket on the Goodwin Sands (at low tide), rambled along the coast between St Margarets and Dover (where the long range guns shelled France in WW2), explored the underground cliff passages (now closed off) under the South Foreland lighthouse, seen the last of the Deal luggers, spent rainy afternoons in the fishermens reading room on the seafront where there was a decent maritime library (now closed, alas), spent soporific afternoons just reading in the grounds of Walmer Castle (the summer residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports), sailed in the Downs, set my watch by the Time Ball Tower, taken Christmas hampers to the crew of the South Goodwin light vessel (now just a flashing buoy) and spent many happy hours amongst the glorious jumble of books in Marrins of Folkestone, happily still there with Patrick Marrin presiding ! Not long before he died I had a convivial dinner in the Royal Hotel in Deal (formerly the Three Kings of Nelson and the Hamiltons – the tria juncta in uno !) with Tom Pocock who regaled me with unpublishable anecdotes about his contemporaries ! The Royal is now in Greene King ownership so the beer has improved (a good pint of Masterbrew) and the historical connections retained – I shall be spending a few days there this summer, being haunted by memories of my youth………….and re-reading the best biography of Nelson – that by Carolla Oman (who herself has an impressive memorial in Ayot St Lawrence church in Hertfordshire) !
How wonderful! Thanks for sharing these memories!
Basil Neve, commemorated in Chipping Campden, was Acting Chief Engine Room Artificer, 2nd Class from Chatham Barracks as HMS Pathfinder was a Chatham ship and the first RN ship sunk by torpedo in WW1, with the loss of some 258 of her complement. Her having been torpedoed on 4th September 1914, was rather played down by the Admiralty at the time, reluctant as they were then to recognise or accept the potency of the U boat threat. However, the sinking by torpedo of the Hogue, Cressey and Aboukir which followed on 22nd September in the Broad Fourteens spelt out in stark fashion the nature of that threat and caused a rapid re-appraisal of the disposition and type of RN ships then meandering about in the North Sea. Thereafter, in the absence of any very effective anti submarine measures, the RN did not ‘own’ it’s home waters and Jellicoe’s (and Beatty’s) subsequent concerns about the ‘submarine threat’ and the torpedo significantly inhibited Grand Fleet tactics in the North Sea for the remainder of the war.
Thanks David.
Thanks for this, David! It reminds me to ask you: I’ll be in London in September, staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Greenwich. I know it’s very close to the site of the old Deptford shipyards. Do you know of historical remnants that are accessible to visit? Memorabilia or artifacts stashed away? (Aside from the Maritime Museum, Old Royal Naval College, Cutty Sark, etc., of course!)
Hi Gillian, I’ll drop you an email!
And don’t forget to visit Anthony Simmonds at Maritme Books in Royal Hill, Greenwich. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of maritime books with his catalogues being models of brevity laced with dry wit …….! Also, the East India Dock, now a nature reserve in the ownership of Lee Valley Regional Park Authority is worth a visit.