The Memorial is situated on Southsea Common overlooking the promenade, and is accessible at all times.
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.
BENNETT, Terence
Note: It would appear that this man is listed twice on The Commonwealth Wargraves Commission website - firstly under Royal Navy and secondly under Naval Auxiliary Personnel (M.N.)
Details from both of these sections are included here.
In Eternal Memory of
BENNETT, Terence Chief Steward R/178678 H.M.S. Registan, Royal Navy who died on Tuesday 27th May 1941. Commemorated on Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Hampshire, United Kingdom. Panel 58, Column 1.
In Eternal Memory of
BENNETT, Terence Chief Steward Naval Auxiliary Personnel (M.N.) who died on Wednesday 28th May 1941. Age 27. Additional Information: Son of Joseph and Mary Bennett, of Liverpool. C. of E. portion. Commemoration at Morthoe Cemetery, North Devon, United Kingdom.
Grave 401.
Please note there is no proof at this time that the Royal Navy Terence Bennett is one and the same person as the Naval Auxiliary Terence Bennett. However, with identical names and trades, it is almost certainly the case that the same man has been commemorated in two separate locations. It is interesting to note that when searching The Commonwealth Wargraves Commission website database, the Royal Navy Terence Bennett is to be found listed under "T Bennett" whereas the Naval Auxiliary Terence Bennett is listed under "T J Bennett". Both, however, lead on to the same full name which is shown as "Terence Bennett"; neither source shows a middle name.
