Merchant Navy Day Service

Merchant Navy national memorial, Trinity Square Gardens, Tower Hill
Merchant Navy Day Service image
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Event has ended
This event ended on Sunday 7th of September 2014
Admission
Free
Location

Merchant Navy national memorial, Trinity Square Gardens, Tower Hill

Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Bank 0.17 miles

All those who served in the Merchant Navy in 1914-1918 will be commemorated by a Service at the Merchant Navy national memorial on Tower Hill in London at 1230 on Sunday 7th September 2014.

In this centenary year, the First World War memorial will be the focal point for the Service. It bears the names of 11,541 members of the Merchant Navy and fishing fleet for whom there is no grave but the sea, listed with the names of the 1,458 vessels from which they were lost.

The Service will include the reading of a first-hand account of U-boat attack in 1915 on a British merchant ship which resulted in its master being awarded posthumously the Victoria Cross. This was the first time the VC had been awarded to a civilian, in this case also its oldest recipient in the First World War, he being Captain Frederick Parslow, born in Islington. The only other civilian recipient in the War was also a Mercantile Marine master.

HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon David Cameron MP, will contribute addresses to the Service. Together with veteran and serving members of the Merchant Navy, relatives and friends, it will be attended by representatives of the shipping industry and Royal Navy, including the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir George Zambellas. Present too will be Admiral The Rt Hon the Lord West of Spithead, the National Patron of the Merchant Navy Association which organises the Service. Wreaths will be laid, followed by the planting in the memorials’ lawn of miniature Red Ensigns, the flag of the British Merchant Navy, in individual acts of remembrance.

All are welcome at the Service, held annually on the Sunday following Merchant Navy Day on 3rd September, the anniversary of the start of the Second World War. In tribute, Red Ensigns will be flown from the Department for Transport headquarters in Horseferry Road, London SW1, and from Tower Bridge. The latter is an honour shared with only the Union Flag and White
Ensign.

There are two other Merchant Navy memorials in Trinity Square Gardens on Tower Hill. The Second World War memorial carries the names of 23,832 members of the Merchant Navy, fishing fleets, Lighthouse, Pilotage and Steam Services for whom there is no known grave but the sea and which lists the 2,174 vessels from which they were lost. The Falklands Campaign memorial records 17 names and their 4 ships. All three memorials are in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

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