The memorial in Hollybrook
Cemetery, Southampton, was one of those erected by the Imperial War
Graves Commission to record the names of those officers and men of
the forces of the Empire who fell in the Great War and whose graves
are not known. It is especially the memorial of those who went down
in transports or other vessels torpedoed or mined in home waters,
but it includes the names of others who died at home, or in distant
areas, and whose bodies could not be recovered.
Four of the names are
due to the loss of HMS "Hampshire" and H.M. Trawler
"Commandant" - among them Lord Kitchener of Khartoum. It
also includes the names of 737 officers
and men who were killed or drowned in H.M. Transports "Donegal",
"Mendi", "Warilda" and "Wayfarer". Of
these, "Donegal" (an ambulance transport) was torpedoed
and sunk on the 17th April 1917, between Le Havre and Southampton;
"Mendi" was lost in the Channel on the 21st February
1917, with 596 men of the South African Native Labour Corps; "Warilda"
(an ambulance transport) was torpedoed and sunk on the 3rd August,
1918, between Le Havre and Southampton, and 109 patients and seven
of the crew were killed or drowned; and "Wayfarer" was
torpedoed (but not sunk) on the 11th April 1915, sixty miles
North-West of the Scillies.
Two hundred and seven names are those
of officers and men who perished in the Hospital Ships
"Anglia", "Asturias", "Glenart
Castle", "Lanfranc" and "Llandovery
Castle". Of these names, 129 belong to "Anglia", sunk
by mine off Dover on the 17th November 1915; 57 to "Glenart
Castle", torpedoed and sunk off Lundy Island on the 26th
February 1918; and 15 to "Lanfranc", torpedoed and sunk
on the 17th April 1917, between Le Havre and Southampton. Twenty
German patients lost their lives in the sinking of "Lanfranc".
The losses in fourteen steamships number 270, and three of these
vessels deserve particular mention. The Italian transport "Citta
di Palermo" (57 names), carrying (among others) 150 British
soldiers, was sunk by mine on the 8th January 1916, ten miles from
Brindisi; and in rescuing the survivors two of the British Otranto
drifters were themselves mined and blown up. "Galway
Castle" (27 names) was torpedoed and sunk on the 12th September
1918, 160 miles out in the Atlantic. The Irish mail boat
"Leinster" (144 names) was torpedoed and sunk in the Irish
Sea on the 10th October, 1918, with the loss of 176 lives in all.
Thirteen names are those of offlcers and men lost in a trawler and
two airships.
Lastly, the Memorial records the names of 258
sailors, soldiers and airmen, and one V.A.D. from the United
Kingdom; 143 Australian soldiers and airmen; 106 South African
soldiers and labourers; 58 men of the British West Indies Regiment;
37 officers and men of Indian units; and 30 Canadian soldiers. The
majority of these were buried at sea.
The total number of
officers and men named on this Memorial is 1853 and the units in
which they served may be classified as follows:-
United Kingdom
Military units: 782
South African units: 716
Australian units: 160
Canadian units: 64
British West Indies Regiment: 58
Indian Regiments: 37
Royal Navy: 16
Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service: 9 Rhodesian
units: 3
Royal West African Frontier Force: 2
Voluntary Aid Detachments: 2
Royal Marines: 1
Territorial Force Nursing Service: 1
Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps: 1
Civilian----
Hollybrook Cemetery is one of those belonging to the
County Borough of Southampton. It is in Chilworth Road, Shirley, two
miles North of Southampton West railway station. It was opened in
1913, and covers an area of 47 acres. It stands on high ground, but
the view of Southampton and Southampton Water is cut off by an
intervening ridge. Immediately within the entrance is the War Plot,
with the War Cross in front of it; and on a terrace at the back of
the Plot is the screen wall which forms the Memorial, and on which
the names of the dead are carved. The general inscription is in
these words:-
1914-1918 To the Glory of God and in memory of 1855
officers and men of the Forces of the British Empire who fell in the
Great War and have no other grave but the Sea or to whom the fortune
of War denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades
in death.
The Register records particulars of 1853 dead, the graves
of two of the names inscribed on the memorial having been identified
in the interval between the carving of the panels and the printing
of this Register.
