There is a cluster of memorials on the riverfront of the Mersey in Liverpool – all relating to World War 2.

The SS Arandora Star was torpedoed west of Donegal on 2/7/1940. Over 800 drowned:-

HMT Lancastria was sunk off St Nazaire 17/6/1940 while evacuating British servicemen and civilans. Up to 6,000 people lost their lives:-

Memorial to ranks and ratings who died on shore with no known grave:-

Repatriation Memorial, commemorating the return of Far East prisoners of war and detainees:-

“Dedicated to the men and women who gave their lives willingly for the freedom of others and have no grave but the sea,” followed by,
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them”:-

Reverse view. “1914-1918 and all 1939-1945.”
“This memorial dedicated to the Merchant Navy was donated to the people of Liverpool by the Liverpool Retired Merchant Seafarers and handed to the city by the Rt Honourable John Prescott Deputy Prime Minister 30th October 1998”:-

Cunard Building in background.

A statue on Liverpool waterfront of Captain F J Walker CB DSO***, Royal Navy, 1896-1944.

“In Memory of Captain F J Walker CB DSO***, Royal Navy, the men of his 36th Escort and 2nd Support Groups and all those who fought in the Battle of the Atlantic.”

(Museum of Liverpool in background with the Memorial to those lost at sea to right.)

By the River Mersey, Liverpool, lies this memorial to Merchant Navy personnel who died serving in the Royal Navy and have no known grave. The names are engraved on the brass panels:-

Central pedestal:-

Inscription. “These officers and men of the merchant navy died while serving with the Royal Navy and have no grave but the sea. 1939-1945”:-

Reverse view:-

On the west side of the Cunard Building in Liverpool lies this Memorial dedicated to Cunard employees who died in the Great War and World War 2. A figure of Victory atop a column with a depiction of a boat extending either side of the column halfway up. “Pro Patria 1914-1918, 1939-1945”:-

I had a busy day yesterday.

Firstly I had the great honour of laying a wreath on behalf of the Community Council at the local War Memorial.

Then in the afternoon it was off to Cellardyke (where we have not-quite-yet relatives) for the Quiet Citizen’s Walk round the town past the houses of the fallen from the Great War poutsid eof which present residents were standing before joining the procession.

The walk ended up at Cellardyke Town Hall where a short talk was given on Cellardyke’s war dead. Unlike in the rest of the country most fishing town’s servicemen enlisted – or were conscripted into in the navy, their boats converted to minesweeping and anti-submarine duties and many sunk as a consequence. So it was with Cellardyke.

Actor Clive Russell who loives in the town recited Ewart Alan Mackintosh’s poem In Memoriam.

Then, in what was a moving detail, a succession of townsfolk who had been allocated a dog-tag with the name one of the dead came on to the stage to give the name and surrender the dog-tag to a total of 62.

There followed another walk to the Cellardyke (Kilrenny) War Memorial for the laying of wreaths and a piper’s lament.

Is it just me being Scottish or is there something more universal about the fittingness of the sound of the bagpipes played in memoriam?

I seem not to have posted this before even though I took the photogaphs in April 2012.

Stratford-upon-Avon has two civic war memorials, one for the Great War, moved to near the river from its original location, and another for the Second World War on a wall nearby.

Great War Memorial:-

World War 2 memorial:-

This web page shows the memorials’ relative dispositions.

On another nearby wall is King Edward’s School Boat Club War Memorial – for both wars:-

Between the Great War Memorial and the Second World War Memorial lies a memorial to an individual. I’m afraid I can no longer remember whom it commemorates and the writing is too indistinct to make out when magnified.

I thought I’d take a respite from Norway for a while so here are some pictures of Liverpool where our friends from Rochdale took us on one of our days with them.

Liverpool is a bustling city with a lot of fine architecture.

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral from the side of the River Mersey:-

It’s a traditional kind of building, quite chunky and solid.

View from the road:-

Liverpool Catholic Cathedral is by contrast in a much more modern style, a bit like a tepee in appearance:-

Keeping up the ecclesiastical theme, the bus tour we were taken on stopped at traffic lights by St Luke’s, a bombed out church which wasn’t restored after World War 2 as reminder and memorial:-

St Luke’s bombed out church:-

St Luke’s Church spire:-

*As the line from the song In my Liverpool Home has it,

Like the Cenotaph in London (and the one in Manchester) Rochdale’s War Memorial was designed by Edwin Lutyens.

It lies opposite the Town Hall, but not facing it, with a memorial gardens behind.

Inscribed “1914-1919 and 1939-1945”. The carved wreath encloses the arms of Rochdale:-

The Stone of Remembrance faces the Town Hall and is inscribed, “Their name liveth for evermore.” The small bronze plaque reads, “To all those who died in the service of their country”:-

Strictly speaking the memorial is not a cenotaph (empty tomb) as it has a figure of a recumbent soldier wrapped in his greatcoat at its summit:-

Rochdale War Memorial Gardens which serve as Rochdale’s memorial to the Second World War:-

A Gallipoli Memorial lies between the Main War memorial and the Memorial Gardens:-

The Memorial Gardens, inscribed as a Memorial to the Rochdale members of the Lancashire Fusiliers :-

In front of and behind the Memorial – at right angles to the Town Hall – are two memorial benches:-

By the roadside on Garstang Road, Broughton-in-Amounderness, Lancashire, England.

The inscription reads, “On the tablets opposite are written the names of those from this parish who gave their lives in two great wars. Rest awhile and think on their sacrifice.”

I snatched this from the passenger window as we were passing. We were being driven by friends.

As I was unable to photograph it myself I found some photos of the main Broughton War Memorial on the internet. (Clicking on the small views brings them up on a larger scale above.)