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Additional
Information: |
Son of
John and Isabella Burnside, of Wheatley Hill, Co. Durham. |
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Memorial:
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PORTSMOUTH
NAVAL MEMORIAL, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
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Grave
Reference/ |
Panel
42, Column 1. |
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Location:
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The Memorial is situated on Southsea Common overlooking
the promenade, and is accessible at all times. |
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Historical
Information: |
After
the 1914-1918 War, an appropriate way had to be found of commemorating those
members of the Royal Navy who had no known grave, the majority of deaths
having occurred at sea where no permanent memorial could be provided. An
Admiralty Committee recommended that the three manning ports in Great Britain
- Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth - should each have an identical memorial
of unmistakable naval form; an obelisk which would serve as a leading mark
for shipping. The memorials, designed by Sir Robert Lorimer with sculptures
and reliefs by Charles Wheeler, William McMillan and Esmond Burton, consist
of a stone tower supported by four corner buttresses, each with a lion
couchant. Towards the top, the tower branches out in the form of four ships'
prows. Above them are representations of the four winds, which in turn
support a larger copper sphere symbolising the globe. The names of over 9,500
sailors commemorated on the memorial at Portsmouth are cast on bronze panels
placed on the buttresses, and the sides of the tower bear the names of the
principal naval engagements fought in the war and an inscription that reads:
IN HONOUR OF THE NAVY AND TO THE ABIDING MEMORY OF THOSE RANKS AND RATINGS OF
THIS PORT WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES IN THE DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE AND HAVE NO
OTHER GRAVE THAN THE SEA After the Second World War it was decided that the
naval memorials should be extended to provide space for commemorating the
naval dead without graves of that war. For Portsmouth, a walled sunken garden
to the landward side of the First World War obelisk was built with almost
15,000 names on bronze name panels fixed along the wall. The central section
of the wall immediately beneath the tower is inscribed with the following
words from Chapter 44 of the Book of Ecclesiasticus: ALL THESE WERE HONOURED
IN THEIR GENERATIONS AND WERE THE GLORY OF THEIR TIMES. The architect for the
Second World War extension was Sir Edward Maufe. |