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Additional
Information: |
Son of
James and Helen Gibson, 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
34, Column 2. |
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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. |