Dead Admirals Society Memorabilia Edition

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!