Royal Naval Patrol Service Memorial

The RNPS Memorial stands in an imposing position on the cliff top in Belle Vue Park, Lowestoft, overlooking the sea and Sparrow's Nest Gardens. It was erected and is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The Memorial solely commemorates those members of RNPS who died during 1939-1946 who have no known grave other than the sea and a few others who died on shore but have no known grave. Many others died in RNPS service but their burial places are known and recorded elsewhere and so their names are not amongst those on this Memorial.

Dedicated in 1953 it consists of a circular base some 40 feet in diameter with a fluted column surmounted by a gilt bronze galleon. Around the base is a panel of Portland stone with the main inscription and 17 bronze panels listing the 2385 names of those lost including 49 from Newfoundland.

Not everyone who wants to is able to visit the site in person. To try to make the details available to all, the contents of the memorial register and images of the panels have been set out on the following pages.

On the memorial bronze panels the names are listed in year of loss order by rank and then surname. For ease of searching the details are listed here in different ways:

By surname  |  By date of loss  |  By vessel name

...and each list is split into three sections to speed downloading. When you are ready to view click one of the list links above.

Against each person listed are brief personal details including a reference to the relevant panel on which their name appears, which is a clickable link to an image of that panel. Further details are available about many of the vessels which will be added as time permits. The additional references used in the expanded notes are listed here:

Our grateful thanks go to Mick Howes for providing the original images of the memorial and panels. If you prefer to view the panels one by one, links to them are set out below: