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Additional
Information: |
Son of
William and Dorothy Cowie, of 14, York St., Wheatley Hill Colliery, Co.
Durham. |
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Memorial:
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CHATHAM
NAVAL MEMORIAL, Kent, United Kingdom |
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Grave
Reference/ |
31. |
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Location:
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The Memorial overlooks the town of Chatham and is
approached by a steep path from the Town Hall Gardens. 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 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
8,000 sailors commemorated on the memorial at Chatham 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 Chatham, a
semi-circular wall facing the original memorial was built, and fifty bronze
panels are ranged along it which bear the names of over 10,000 sailors. The
wall has wrought-iron gates at its central point 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. |