Did you know... WRNS War Memorial

On 4 November 2017, on the grass of the west front of Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral, HRH Princess Anne unveiled a commemorative stone marking the centenary of the WRNS (known as WRENS) and celebrating the role of the Women’s Service in the Royal Navy, including serving their country in both World Wars and post 1945.

The sculptor, Robyn Golden-Hann, focussed on the unique part of their uniform, and carved from a block of Portland stone their different iconic hats complete with badges whose styles had changed over time.

In this season of remembrance, it is important to remember other memorials inside the building, in the cathedral nave: the WWII Royal Naval Boy Seamen memorial, unveiled in 2012, also sculpted by Robyn Golden-Hann, commemorating the loss of 535 teenagers: 125 lost when HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed in Scapa Flow in 1939, 71 killed when HMS Hood was sunk by the Bismarck in 1941. A boy aged 15 could join the navy but had to be 16/17 to go to sea.

The HMS Glamorgan window, designed by Susan Cook, was dedicated in 1997, and remembers the 13 crewmen lost in an Exocet attack during the Falklands Campaign of 1982. The Burma Star Association Window, designed by Carl Edwards, was dedicated in 1982. It marks the turning point in the war against Japan, when - after fierce fighting - the siege of Kohima was relieved by Indian and British troops and the Japanese retreat began. The window contains the poignant ‘Kohima epitaph’ - first composed by J.M.

Edmonds in 1916 for a WWI graveyard in France and adapted for the Kohima memorial in 1944 - which has become the watchword of Remembrance:

‘When you go home Tell them of us and say For your tomorrow We gave our today.’