| Citation:
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| Additional
Information: |
Son of Abraham and Sarah May, of Blind Lane, Westend, Southampton.
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| Cemetery: |
PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, Hampshire, United Kingdom
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| Grave Reference/Panel Number: |
4. |
| Location: |
The Memorial is situated on Southsea Common overlooking the
promenade, and is accessible at all times.
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| Historical Information: |
After the First World 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 were
designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, who had already carried out a considerable
amount of work for the Commission, with sculpture by Henry Poole. 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, but since the three sites were dissimilar, a different
architectural treatment was required for each. The architect for the
Second World War extension at Portsmouth was Sir Edward Maufe (who also
designed the Air Forces memorial at Runnymede) and the additional
sculpture was by Charles Wheeler, William McMillan, and Esmond Burton.
Portsmouth Naval Memorial commemorates almost 10,000 sailors of the First
World War and almost 15,000 from the Second World
War |