PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL
Devon
England
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.36573, Longitude: -4.14223
Location Information
The Memorial is situated centrally on The Hoe which looks directly towards Plymouth Sound. It is accessible at all times. Copies of the Memorial Register are kept at the Tourist Information Office at Island House, 9 The Barbican, Plymouth, PL1 2LS, and also in the Naval Historical Section at Plymouth Library.
Visiting Information
Disabled access to the First World War section of the Memorial is possible via the Hoe at the front of the Memorial. The Second World Was section of the memorial is however only possible via steps making access for people with limited mobility difficult. For further information regarding disabled access, please contact our Enquiries Section on 01628 507200.
Visitors are kindly requested not to 'embellish' inscriptions on the memorial using chalk or abrasive products in order to enhance them for photographic purposes. Previous incidences of this have damaged the panels.
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. The Plymouth Naval Memorial was unveiled by HRH Prince George on 29 July 1924.
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 Plymouth was Sir Edward Maufe (who also designed the Air Forces memorial at Runnymede) and the additional sculpture was by Charles Wheeler and William McMillan. The Extension was unveiled by HRH Princess Margaret on 20 May 1954. A further unveiling took place on 11 November 1956, when panels honouring those who died on shore, but who had no known grave, were unveiled by Admiral Sir Mark Pizey.
In addition to commemorating seamen of the Royal Navy who sailed from Plymouth, the First World War panels also bears the names of sailors from Australia and South Africa. The governments of the other Commonwealth nations chose to commemorate their dead elsewhere, for the most part on memorials in their home ports. After the Second World War, Canada and New Zealand again chose commemoration at home, but the memorial at Plymouth commemorates sailors from all other parts of the Commonwealth.
Plymouth Naval Memorial commemorates 7,263 sailors of the First World War and 15,927 of the Second World War.
Total Commemorated: 23, 190.
World War One Commemorated: United Kingdom 7,189, Australia 74. Total 7,263.
World War Two Commemorated: United Kingdom 13,905, Australia 1,781, South Africa 225, India 16. Total 15,927.
The Memorial is situated centrally on The Hoe which looks directly towards Plymouth Sound. It is accessible at all times. Copies of the Memorial Register are kept at the Tourist Information Office at Island House, 9 The Barbican, Plymouth, PL1 2LS, and also in the Naval Historical Section at Plymouth Library.
Visiting Information
Disabled access to the First World War section of the Memorial is possible via the Hoe at the front of the Memorial. The Second World Was section of the memorial is however only possible via steps making access for people with limited mobility difficult. For further information regarding disabled access, please contact our Enquiries Section on 01628 507200.
Visitors are kindly requested not to 'embellish' inscriptions on the memorial using chalk or abrasive products in order to enhance them for photographic purposes. Previous incidences of this have damaged the panels.
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. The Plymouth Naval Memorial was unveiled by HRH Prince George on 29 July 1924.
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 Plymouth was Sir Edward Maufe (who also designed the Air Forces memorial at Runnymede) and the additional sculpture was by Charles Wheeler and William McMillan. The Extension was unveiled by HRH Princess Margaret on 20 May 1954. A further unveiling took place on 11 November 1956, when panels honouring those who died on shore, but who had no known grave, were unveiled by Admiral Sir Mark Pizey.
In addition to commemorating seamen of the Royal Navy who sailed from Plymouth, the First World War panels also bears the names of sailors from Australia and South Africa. The governments of the other Commonwealth nations chose to commemorate their dead elsewhere, for the most part on memorials in their home ports. After the Second World War, Canada and New Zealand again chose commemoration at home, but the memorial at Plymouth commemorates sailors from all other parts of the Commonwealth.
Plymouth Naval Memorial commemorates 7,263 sailors of the First World War and 15,927 of the Second World War.
Total Commemorated: 23, 190.
World War One Commemorated: United Kingdom 7,189, Australia 74. Total 7,263.
World War Two Commemorated: United Kingdom 13,905, Australia 1,781, South Africa 225, India 16. Total 15,927.
World War One Victoria Cross Recipient
Lieutenant Commander William Edward Sanders, V. C.
H. M. S. Prize, Royal Naval Reserve
14th August 1917, aged 34,
Panel 23.
Son of Edward Helman Cooke Sanders and Emma Jane Sanders, of Russell, Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Held Extra Master's Certificate (Mercantile Marine). Born at Auckland, New Zealand.
Citation: An extract from the London Gazette, No. 30147, dated 22nd June, 1917, records the following- "In recognition of his conspicuous gallantry, consummate coolness, and skill in command of one of H.M. ships in action."
H. M. S. Prize, Royal Naval Reserve
14th August 1917, aged 34,
Panel 23.
Son of Edward Helman Cooke Sanders and Emma Jane Sanders, of Russell, Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Held Extra Master's Certificate (Mercantile Marine). Born at Auckland, New Zealand.
Citation: An extract from the London Gazette, No. 30147, dated 22nd June, 1917, records the following- "In recognition of his conspicuous gallantry, consummate coolness, and skill in command of one of H.M. ships in action."
World War Two Victoria Cross Recipient
H.1617 Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean, V. C.
H. M. A. S. Armidale, Royal Australian Naval Reserve
1st December 1942, aged 18.
Panel 26, Column 1.
Son of James and Mary Jane Sheean, of East Devonport, Tasmania, Australia.
Citation:
An extract from "The London Gazette," dated 1st December, 2020, reads as follows:- "For the most conspicuous gallantry and a pre-eminent act of valour in the presence of the enemy during a Japanese aerial attack on HMAS Armidale in the Timor Sea on 1 December 1942".
Edward "Teddy" Sheean was an ordinary seaman serving on HMAS Armidale whose death during a Japanese aerial attack on his ship has become a well-known episode in Australian Second World War lore.
Sheean was born at Lower Barrington, Tasmania, on 28 December 1923. He received his education in a Catholic school at Latrobe in Tasmania and, having completed his schooling, worked on farms in the area where he grew up. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in April 1941 and began his initial training in Tasmania. In February 1942 he was sent to the Flinders Naval Depot at Westernport in Victoria to continue his training, and the following May he was posted to Sydney.
At the end of that month, the vessel on which he was billeted, the former ferry Kuttabul, was sunk during the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour. Fortunately for Sheean he was in Tasmania on home leave that night. He returned to Sydney 11 days later to begin his service as an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gunner on the newly commissioned corvette, HMAS Armidale. Armidale spent her early months on relatively uneventful convoy escort duties along Australia's east and northern coasts.
In October 1942 Armidale's captain, Lieutenant Commander David Richards, was ordered to Darwin and, on 29 November, the corvette began her last operation. Along with two other vessels, she was to undertake a resupply and evacuation mission to Japanese-occupied Timor.
Having been seen by Japanese reconnaissance pilots shortly after leaving the port, Armidale was destined for a dangerous journey. She and the other corvette on the operation, HMAS Castlemaine, missed the rendezvous with the third ship, in Timor's Betano Bay, but met her later some 100 kilometres off-shore. The plan having gone awry, Armidale was ordered to return to Betano the following night. Facing a long day in enemy waters and the certainty of attack, the crew waited.
When in the mid-afternoon she was hit by two aircraft-launched torpedoes, Armidale began to sink fast. Sheean was wounded and, rather than abandon ship, he strapped himself to his Oerlikon and began to engage the attacking aircraft even as the ship sunk beneath him. He shot down two planes, and crewmates recall seeing tracer rising from beneath the surface as Sheean was dragged under the water, firing until the end. He died on 1 December 1942 aged just 18. Only 49 of the 149 men on board survived the attack and subsequent ordeal on rafts and in life boats.
For his courageous action Teddy Sheean was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches; this award was upgraded to the Victoria Cross for Australia in 2020. In 1999 a Collins Class submarine was named after him - the only vessel in the Royal Australian Navy to be named after an ordinary seaman
H. M. A. S. Armidale, Royal Australian Naval Reserve
1st December 1942, aged 18.
Panel 26, Column 1.
Son of James and Mary Jane Sheean, of East Devonport, Tasmania, Australia.
Citation:
An extract from "The London Gazette," dated 1st December, 2020, reads as follows:- "For the most conspicuous gallantry and a pre-eminent act of valour in the presence of the enemy during a Japanese aerial attack on HMAS Armidale in the Timor Sea on 1 December 1942".
Edward "Teddy" Sheean was an ordinary seaman serving on HMAS Armidale whose death during a Japanese aerial attack on his ship has become a well-known episode in Australian Second World War lore.
Sheean was born at Lower Barrington, Tasmania, on 28 December 1923. He received his education in a Catholic school at Latrobe in Tasmania and, having completed his schooling, worked on farms in the area where he grew up. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in April 1941 and began his initial training in Tasmania. In February 1942 he was sent to the Flinders Naval Depot at Westernport in Victoria to continue his training, and the following May he was posted to Sydney.
At the end of that month, the vessel on which he was billeted, the former ferry Kuttabul, was sunk during the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour. Fortunately for Sheean he was in Tasmania on home leave that night. He returned to Sydney 11 days later to begin his service as an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gunner on the newly commissioned corvette, HMAS Armidale. Armidale spent her early months on relatively uneventful convoy escort duties along Australia's east and northern coasts.
In October 1942 Armidale's captain, Lieutenant Commander David Richards, was ordered to Darwin and, on 29 November, the corvette began her last operation. Along with two other vessels, she was to undertake a resupply and evacuation mission to Japanese-occupied Timor.
Having been seen by Japanese reconnaissance pilots shortly after leaving the port, Armidale was destined for a dangerous journey. She and the other corvette on the operation, HMAS Castlemaine, missed the rendezvous with the third ship, in Timor's Betano Bay, but met her later some 100 kilometres off-shore. The plan having gone awry, Armidale was ordered to return to Betano the following night. Facing a long day in enemy waters and the certainty of attack, the crew waited.
When in the mid-afternoon she was hit by two aircraft-launched torpedoes, Armidale began to sink fast. Sheean was wounded and, rather than abandon ship, he strapped himself to his Oerlikon and began to engage the attacking aircraft even as the ship sunk beneath him. He shot down two planes, and crewmates recall seeing tracer rising from beneath the surface as Sheean was dragged under the water, firing until the end. He died on 1 December 1942 aged just 18. Only 49 of the 149 men on board survived the attack and subsequent ordeal on rafts and in life boats.
For his courageous action Teddy Sheean was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches; this award was upgraded to the Victoria Cross for Australia in 2020. In 1999 a Collins Class submarine was named after him - the only vessel in the Royal Australian Navy to be named after an ordinary seaman
Studio portrait of the Sheean brothers of Lower Barrington, Tasmania, both Australian sailors serving at the Tasmanian naval base HMAS Derwent (later renamed HMAS Huon). On the left is H1646 Stoker Class II Thomas (Mick) Sheean and on the right is H1617 Ordinary Seaman (OS) Edward (Teddy) Sheean, RAN.
Studio portrait of the Sheean family. Identified left to right, back row: H1617 Ordinary Seaman Edward (Teddy) Sheean RAN; 6849 (VX51790) Private Frederick Sheean. Front row: James Sheean; Mary Sheean and VX52321 Private William Henry Sheean