War Memorial

After World War I, the Royal Navy wanted to find a way to commemorate sailors and Royal Marines who had died at sea and had no known grave. An Admiralty committee recommended building memorials at the three main naval ports in Great Britain – Plymouth, Chatham, and Portsmouth. The memorials at all three sites were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer with sculpture by Henry Poole. Following World War II, the naval memorials were expanded to commemorate the dead from that war. Sir Edward Maufe performed the architectural design for the expansion at Plymouth, and the sculpture was by Charles Wheeler and William McMillan. The Plymouth memorial also bears the names of sailors from Australia, South…

The memorial features a central obelisk, with names of the dead arranged according to the year of death. Those for the First World War are on panels affixed to the obelisk's base; those for the Second World War are on panels set into the surrounding wall. Within each year, the names are grouped by service, then by rank and surname.