In Memory of
MERVYN JASPER SWINGLER MARKLOVE
Stoker 1st Class
D/KX 101040
H.M.S. Bonaventure, Royal Navy
who died on
Monday, 31st March 1941. Age 21.
| Additional Information: |
Son of Rosina Bessie Marklove, and stepson of
Hector Macdonald, of Wickwar, Gloucestershire. |
Commemorative Information
| Memorial: |
PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, Devon, United
Kingdom |
Grave Reference/
Panel Number: |
Panel 53, Column 2.
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| Location: |
The Memorial is situated centrally on The Hoe
which looks directly towards Plymouth Sound. It is accessible at all
times. After the 1914-1918 War, an appropriate way had to be found of
commemorating those members of the Royal Navy who had no known grave,
the majority of deaths having occurred at sea where no permanent
memorial could be provided. An Admiralty Committee recommended that the
three manning ports in Great Britain - Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth
- should each have an identical memorial of unmistakable naval form; an
obelisk which would serve as a leading mark for shipping. The memorials
consist of a stone tower supported by four corner buttresses, each with
a lion couchant. Towards the top, the tower branches out in the form of
four ships' prows. Above them are representations of the four winds,
which in turn support a larger copper sphere symbolising the globe. The
names of over 7,000 sailors commemorated on the memorial at Plymouth are
cast on bronze panels placed on the buttresses, and the sides of the
tower bear the names of the principal naval engagements fought in the
war and an inscription that reads: IN HONOUR OF THE NAVY AND TO THE
ABIDING MEMORY OF THOSE RANKS AND RATINGS OF THIS PORT WHO LAID DOWN
THEIR LIVES IN THE DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE AND HAVE NO OTHER GRAVE THAN
THE SEA After the Second World War it was decided that the naval
memorials should be extended to provide space for commemorating the
naval dead without graves of that war. For Plymouth, a sheltered sunken
garden was created on the landward side of the memorial with bronze name
panels fixed to the curved retaining wall. There are over 15,000 names
on the 1939-1945 extension to the memorial. The central section of the
wall is inscribed with the following words from Chapter 44 of the Book
of Ecclesiasticus: ALL THESE WERE HONOURED IN THEIR GENERATIONS AND WERE
THE GLORY OF THEIR TIMES. In addition to commemorating seamen of the
Royal Navy who sailed from Plymouth, the First World War panels also
commemorate sailors from Australia and South Africa. Other Dominions
wished for commemoration elsewhere and their sailors are commemorated
for the most part in their own home ports. After the Second World War,
Canada and New Zealand again elected for commemoration at home, but the
Plymouth Memorial commemorates sailors from all other parts of the
Empire. The dedicatory inscription on the seaward side of the obelisk
reads: IN HONOUR OF THE NAVY AND TO THE ABIDING MEMORY OF THESE RANKS
AND RATINGS OF THIS PORT WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES IN THE DEFENCE OF THE
EMPIRE AND HAVE NO OTHER GRAVE THAN THE SEA AND THEIR COMRADES OF
AUSTRALIA SOUTH AFRICA NEWFOUNDLAND INDIA PAKISTAN CEYLON FIJI GOLD
COAST HONG KONG KENYA MALAYA NIGERIA SIERRA LEONE AND BURMA WHOSE NAMES
ARE HERE RECORDED.
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