HMS Ganges Memorial

HMS Gange Memorial

at the National Arboretum

Written by Godfrey Dykes

© RN Communications Branch Museum/Library

Hello. I do think it rather a pity that this monument is not available to view on the internet. The internet can do one of two basic tasks namely that it can whet ones appetite into actually going to see the place of homage, or it can bring that place of homage to those, who for whatever reason are unable to travel and visit it personally.

It cannot be found on its owners site, the Royal British Legion, not even by name never mind a photograph. Nor can it be found on the HMS Ganges Association web site or the HMS Ganges Museum Website where its absence is total, except that there is mention under Activities that Brian Coward is the activity representative for the Memorial.

It is however, on the old HMS Ganges Association website, the one constructed by the erstwhile and much missed Clive Watts, but that site will eventually disappear from view probably early in the new year of 2010 on its first anniversary of being unvisited by its webmaster and therefore considered abandoned.

What follows on this page is copied from Clive's excellent site. I have another page on this site into which I have copied Clive's salutation to HMS Ganges' Victoria Cross holders, yet another subject ignored by the current webmaster post February 2009.

Here then is an excellent description of our Memorial as explained by Brian Coward, who for a long time gave it his best shot and came up with a Memorial of which we are so proud.

THE H.M.S. GANGES MEMORIAL

After what has seemed - to me - to be a very long while, I am extremely pleased to report that the HMS GANGES MEMORIAL is completed. This is what it looks like.

It is sited at The National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas in Staffordshire which is now run by The Royal British Legion (who took over from the originators of the idea about two years ago). It is on a 150 acre site that is devoted to the remembrance of those who have served, died or suffered in the service of their Country. Additionally, the Arboretum is there to commemorate those for whom it is appropriate, for specific reasons, to be remembered. The latter allows for individual memorials / trees to be erected/planted. All of the armed forces are represented in a variety of forms. Many ships' Associations have planted trees with an appropriate plaque. Many Army Regiments have their own memorials. Additionally, many civilian organisations and individuals too are commemorated. At the latest count, there are 120 major memorials, together with over 44,000 trees, many individually dedicated. I personally recommend that - if possible - you visit the site. For those not able to physically go, then have a look at their website to get a feel for what is there. This can be found at: The National Memorial Arboretum

The H.M.S. GANGES MEMORIAL is sited at the back of the Royal Naval area, which adjoins the Merchant Naval area. Its actual position is at the end of a row of Merchant Naval shipping lines memorials.

It has been created with 'symbolism' in mind. The flatbed memorial has Four Main corner Stones, which have been obtained from (Clockwise from front left), Scotland (Cromar Lightning), Wales (Plum Slate), Ireland (Irish Quartzite) and England (Green Lakeland Slate). Each of these stones has a national floral emblem sculpted into it. These are: Scotland - Thistle, Wales - Daffodil, Ireland - Shamrock and England - Rose. The selection of these stones represents the fact that The Boys came from all over the United Kingdom (thus stones from the four main countries). The Main plinth, sited at the back in the centre is a piece of White Portland Stone onto which is carved the H.M.S. Ganges crest and below that, the words:

"THIS MEMORIAL IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ALL WHO PASSED THROUGH H.M.S GANGES AT SHOTLEY IN SUFFOLK BETWEEN THE YEARS 1905 AND 1976."

The edging of the memorial is constructed of Staffordshire Blue Bricks, raised a little above ground level. Within the inner floor of the memorial is scattered a Greeny/Bluey (colour dependent upon the light/weather etc.) Shale. This represents The Sea!

A brief write up of the function and history of H.M.S. Ganges (as a Shore Establishment training Boys for the Royal Navy) has been provided to The National Memorial Arboretum. This will be included within their guide in order that readers are aware of what this memorial commemorates.

The Memorial has been constructed so that it should be 'maintenance free', with the wind and rain carrying out cleaning duties for us. It had to be this way because we will all be gone in the not too distant future! Organising 'Cooks of The Mess' was just not practical!

Planning is in hand for a Dedication Ceremony to be held at The Arboretum for the Memorial. It will not be until - at the very earliest - 2008 and then, probably when the good weather is with us!!. The H.M.S. GANGES Association's Committee have this task in hand and details will promulgated when arrangements are made.

I trust the above gives all readers an insight into what I have been up to over the last three years. Personally, it has been for me, a very interesting time, allowing me to rub shoulders and talk to, craftsmen whom I would never have met had it not been for this project.

As an ex-Ganges Boy, I am proud to have been instrumental in the creation of this memorial, which will ensure that long after we have gone, the memorial will let people of future generations know that H.M.S. Ganges was there and served its country well.

THEY WILL REMEMBER US!

Brian Coward

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Today is the 28th of November 2009 and yesterday, Friday the 27th, I visited the National Memorial Arboretum [NMA] to take the short movie I promised above. However, my visit merits more than just a short movie, so the following is a record of my visit.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yesterday the 27th November 2009, on a glorious day with blue skies but bitterly cold wind, I journeyed from Suffolk to Stafford to visit the Arboretum with the specific intention of photographing and filming the HMS Ganges Memorial. It was my second visit, the first being in 2002 and much has changed during that seven year period. Whatever I may say on this page, does not detract, in any way, from the experience of humility one feels during this visit, and one cannot help being touched and even overawed by being in the presence of so many Memorials commemorating British events and occasions from as long ago as World War One. The new centre piece, The Armed Forces Memorial opened by Her Majesty in 2007, records and reveres the names of no less than 17,000 men and women who have died on duty since the end of World War Two. The amble through this stunningly beautiful Memorial [some might say shrine] is humbling in the extreme, and polarises ones thoughts towards the almost continuous state of war or conflict [or preparation for] our country has been and continues to be subjected to. The sadness is heightened when one observes that the 2009 list of our dead is not yet added, and turning away from the row upon row of tablets bearing the names of those who have perished, are yet more row upon row of blank tablets, awaiting the names of those yet to die in the years ahead. Being there affected me greatly and it is truly difficult to hide ones emotions. I had two other emotions both of which, at some earlier point in my life had affected me and these were manifest in a disappointment and in a surprise. Back in 1958-59 I had a friend called Donald Lister and we served in Malta together. Donald's Number was 939405 whilst mine was 930735. Shortly after leaving Malta for a UK position, Donald was accidentally killed whilst returning to his ship, and thus returning to 'duty'. His name is not on the Memorial though it is on this website Royal Navy casualties, killed and died, 1960-62 [when on the site, choose 'EDIT' and then 'FIND ON THIS PAGE'. ADD "LISTER" into the find box and it will automatically find the event for you which was Sunday 27th March 1960 when serving in HMS CAUTON]. I have to admit that I do wonder why! The surprise was to find Lord Mountbatten's name. He was murdered by the IRA in 1979 when an old man of 79. So many people, old and young, male and female were murdered by this vile organisation and would not in normal circumstances, have their names on such a Memorial. That Lord Mountbatten does is because he was an Admiral of the Fleet, and as such, NEVER retired, but remained on the Active List until death. Because his assailants were [and continue to be] an enemy of the UK, he died ON DUTY. Really, I shouldn't have been surprised, and very soon realised why his name is there.

The Arboretum is a huge area, approximately 195 acres in size [the average football pitch is 1.8 acres] and to see all the man-made memorials alone would take one three days to do them justice. To see the thousands of trees planted in the name of this or that organisation, would take weeks. It is a beautiful place and I would recommend it to all.

Before I continue to mention the HMS Ganges Memorial, I have a couple of observations to share with you. I was quite taken aback to learn that in some cases [even for relatively well known organisations] one of the NMA volunteers, a secular person but a church goer, acts to take the Commemoration Service at a Memorial dedication. He hinted that many [because they themselves are not church goers] prefer the leader of such a Service to be dressed in a lounge suite rather than in a clerics robe! I would take issue with that but this is not the place. As I understand it, there is a cleric available on-call in that part of Staffordshire, but he/she is sometimes unavailable. Fortunately the main organisations bring their own cleric with them. Secondly, it is very evident [and confirmed by a Memorial volunteer] that the NMA is dictated to by the Ministry of Defence [MOD] on all matters. Whilst in the church, my eyes were drawn to the altar upon which was a large wreath of poppies stood upright, and resting on it was a card with photographs and text saying that this was laid [at the Arboretum] by Harry Patch the last of our World War One combatants. I mentioned my current campaign to have Claude Choules recognised as such now after the death of Harry and the volunteer told me that if MOD believes this to be the case, then they must follow the MOD's lead [or orders]. That being on an altar more or less confirms even unto God that Claude is persona non grata as far as the UK is concerned. And finally in what I hope are fair and rational observations, I will mention the map of the NMA which is on sale at the reception desk for £2.50. It is euphemistically called "Finding your way around" and I think it would be better were they to add "if you are in an aeroplane" or, "when first constructed" taking no account of the many trees which have grown and are more prominent than the items shown on the map, indeed, totally masking them from view.

From the main map I have reduced the area covered so that I can concentrate upon the naval section wherein the Ganges Memorial is situated. What the numbers in the red circles represent is of no interest here, nor, by and large when you are there at the site proper, for it is out of date and moreover, on such a map there is no way you can be directed to the thousands of individual Memorials, in many different forms, which are represented at the NMA. Each organisation represented should, I feel, produce a map of where THEIR Memorial is situated and that could or should be downloaded from the parent Association website before travelling to the NMA, arriving armed with a relevant map. I will attempt to do that here for the viewing of the HMS Ganges Memorial.

The imagee above can safely be taken as being the main vista, the immediate panorama you will see when leaving the main building or for that matter, the church. The most prominent Memorial is the Armed Forces Memorial on the raised area in the mid-distance in front of you. There is a little train which will take you there as part of a journey it takes around some of the Memorials. Cost, £2 each for the round trip. I will now further reduce the picture but this time I will animate it to start the route to the Naval field: naval in this case meaning mercantile as well as royal. There is however an area called "Navy Wood" which is totally divorced from the area under consideration, separated by a good long walk away.

The area you are most directly concerned with is bordered by the roads Millennium Avenue/Yeomanry Avenue/Wrens Path [the latter of course leading to the WRNS Memorial] which is a huge grassed area with many trees and a relatively [for the size of the plot] few man-made Memorials.

In this animation I show you to the grassed area which is called the naval section, although with the reservations already stated. It appears on the map that you are heading for a lake, a stretch of water, and well you might be, but you cannot and don't see it, so it is misleading for our navigation purposes. In fact what you do see, and it is the predominant feature, is a mini forest of closely packed trees now nearing a height of ten to twelve feet high, and each of these trees [there are a few thousand of them I believe] represents a merchant ship sunk in World War Two. Thus, by far your 'guiding light' as it were, is the mercantile marine Memorials [several different types] chief of which is the forest. The forest is in fact in front of the lake and therefore you can now see why the map is misleading and the perspective distorted utterly. In the next animation, I am going to add that mini forest plus one or two other things which will guide you.

The letters in the white hexagon shapes viz H, E, D, G, A, B, C, F, are respectively.

Playground; Far East POW Building; Car Park; Charity Shop & Coffee Garden; Visitor Centre; Chapel; Toilets and Armed Forces Memorial.

Next comes a small photo album [of some of the photographs] of our day out taken by my dear wife Beryl. This will be followed by a couple of very short cameo movies intended only to give the geography of the Memorial bearing in mind that it cannot be found anywhere else in the public domain. Enjoy.


					* See below
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
				v
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

* TOC-H. All of these photographs have an immediate impact and familiar story except for possibly one, and that is TOC-H ? So, please click on the thumbnail below to read a short script which I know you will find of great interest. It is reproduced by the kind permission of Terry Hall of the Derbyshire Submariners Association and taken from his [he is the editor and publisher] excellent monthly on-line newsletter "Deeps of Derbyshire".

The following are four short videos that I shot during my visit.


The H.M.S. GANGES Memorial in its quiet and dignified setting.	A view of the immediate vicinity of the Ganges Memorial with the park bench seat just before it [to its left as one approaches] is dedicated to Captain Dunlop. Also a good view of the trees in the merchant navy section, each one representing a WW2 ship loss. As the movie starts, in the distance, far left. you will see a flag flying. This is the Red Ensign indicating the Mercantile Marine Memorials.	The name plate on the park bench next to the Ganges Memorial. It might have been better had it mentioned that he was the very last captain of HMS Ganges.	The Captain and his Boys' side by side, with the merchant navy trees behind offering protection from North Westerly weather.

Good bye and God Bless you all. I have but one final observation and that is the visual reading affect the Ganges Memorial had upon me. I find it difficult to read now and I am almost sure that the icons of our various countries, the rose, the shamrock, the thistle and the daffodil will, within but a few years hence, fade into obscurity leaving just the words on the central stone visible, but they themselves, for how long?

Finally, the following link to the NMA gives you a list of all the NMA memorials shown in the literature sold at the Reception Desk of the Arboretum, the maps for £2-50 and the guide books for £5 as at the 28th November 2009. NMA LISTED MEMORIALS