Hamble War Memorial & St. Andrews Churchyard

Lych gate & war memorial.

Note the small green & white CWGC sign inside the lych gate, signifying that there are military burials within the churchyard.

The two side panels seen here list the Great War dead, ten names in total.

It’s a slightly oddly-proportioned war memorial, I think,…

…with a cross…

…that seems a little small for the pedestal on which it stands.  Not that it matters a jot.

The Second World War dead are listed across three panels.

The 2nd Great War.  As with the Great War panel, it’s nice to see the inclusion of ‘…and all who like them died…’.

Behind the war memorial,…

…this is the Roll of Honour for the Training Ship “Mercury”,…

…all ‘Old Boys’ who had trained at “Mercury” here at Hamble,…

…and who paid the ultimate price in two World Wars.  The Victorians introduced pre-sea training establishments to meet the needs of the Royal & Merchant Navies, “Mercury” being one of over thirty in operation by the end of the 19th Century, and the only privately owned one.  Wiki will tell you more, should you be intrigued.

As I have no photos taken inside the church, I presume it was locked, although I really can’t remember.  The few military graves I found in the churchyard are all post-Great War or Second World War casualties.

Or neither.  This is the grave of one Thomas Hobbs, accidentally drowned at Netley in January 1900, and I include it as we visited Netley not so long ago and looked around both the chapel and cemetery while we were there.  Click here for a reminder.

Manchester Regiment major who died in 1931.

There’s a CWGC headstone in the background, the only one here, but first, closest to the camera,…

…this headstone remembers, at the bottom, Alfred Charles Price, killed in action on 24th May 1941.  A quick search reveals he was a Shipwright 4th Class aboard H.M.S. Hood, sunk on that date by the Bismarck during the Battle of the Denmark Strait.  Alfred Price was one of 1,415 men who went down with her; there were just three survivors.  He is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

The CWGC grave is that of Flight Sergeant Ian Malcolm James McGavin, Mentioned in Despatches, Royal Air Force, who died on 18th December 1942 aged 31.  He was killed while inspecting the damaged undercarriage of a Short Sterling bomber when, with tragic timing, the other undercarriage gave way, the plane collapsing and crushing him beneath it.

Nature becomes art.