Plymouth Naval Memorial, Plymouth

Situated centrally on The Hoe, looking directly towards Plymouth Sound, is the Plymouth Naval Memorial. This war memorial is dedicated to the British and Commonwealth sailors who fell during the course of two world wars and whose graves are unmarked.

After World War I, the Royal Navy wanted to find a way to commemorate sailors and Royal Marines lost at sea and without known graves. An Admiralty committee recommended building memorials at the three main naval ports of Great Britain – Plymouth, Chatham, and Portsmouth. The memorials at all three sites were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer with sculpture by Henry Poole.

The Plymouth memorial was unveiled on July 29th, 1924.

Following World War II, the naval memorials were expanded to commemorate the dead from that war, too. Sir Edward Maufe performed the architectural design for the expansion at Plymouth, and the sculpture was done by Charles Wheeler and William McMillan.

The Plymouth Naval Memorial commemorates 7,251 sailors of the World War I and 15,933 of the World War II. In addition to sailors from the UK, it bears the names of those from Australia, South Africa, and India.

The memorial features a central obelisk, with the 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; while 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.