This information is transcribed from the official Register for the First
World War, held in the Naval Studies collection of Plymouth's Central Library:
The Royal Navy and the Navies of the Dominions lost, during the War, about
48,000 ranks and ratings killed in action, died of wounds, or otherwise fallen in the
performance of their duty; but nearly one half of these died on land, and will be
commemorated in the cemeteries where they lie, or on appropriate memorials. They include
many dead of the Royal Naval Division, as well as others who died in hospital, or at home,
after service afloat. But of the whole no fewer than 25,563 were lost or buried at sea and
were not recorded in any cemetery or on any battlefield.
The Admiralty, in the year 1920, appointed a Committee to report on the
most suitable form and position for a memorial to these men. After exhaustive
consideration the Committee recommended that three Memorials should be erected at the
three Home Ports which are the Manning Ports of the Royal Navy; and as to the form they
recommended, in effect, that each Memorial should, while carrying the names of the dead,
serve also as a "Sea-mark" or "Leading-mark" for ships entering the
Ports.
It was finally agreed that the sites for the three Memorials should be: -
At Chatham, the "Great Lines", immediately East of
the Naval Recreation Ground, overlooking the Port of Chatham, and just within the
boundaries of the Borough of Gillingham;
At Plymouth, in the Park on the North side of the Hoe,
between the Drake Statue and the Armada Memorial; and
At Portsmouth, at the edge of Southsea Common, separated from
the shore by the Clarence Esplanade and placed on the bearing used by ships crossing from
the Isle of Wight on the Swashway Channel.
The location of the Plymouth Memorial is shown on this plan taken from the
Plymouth Register. It shows the layout of the streets and Hoe before the post-Second World
War rebuilding.
