Memorial Book - The Maritime Foundation

Remembering seafarers and others lost at sea

The Memorial Book and Service of Thanksgiving

The sea takes a toll in lives. While the War Graves Commission provides lasting memorials to those killed in battle, many people lost at sea, whether in peacetime or wartime, have no such memorial.

In 1987, the Maritime Foundation initiated a Memorial Book for ‘Those Lost at Sea with No Known Grave’, which is kept in the Mariners’ Chapel at All Hallows by The Tower to record their names and circumstances of their deaths.

A Service of Thanksgiving is held each year for friends and family. To save what, for many, may be the expense and difficulty of travelling to London, the Foundation has proposed that linked Memorial Books should be established in other major ports. This project has the support of the Mission to Seafarers, but much work remains to be done.

If you have a relative or friend who died in such circumstances, however long ago, and you would like to enter his or her name in the Memorial Book, please complete the entry form at the bottom of this page and send it to the Maritime Foundation. If there are any difficulties in providing the information, our historian will be pleased to help.

A charge of £45 is made for placing each name in the Memorial Book. You will also be sent a hand drawn facsimile extract of the entry, suitable for mounting and framing. Any surplus arising after costs have been met will be used by the Maritime Foundation for the improvement of equipment which will reduce accidents and loss of life at sea.

A Thanksgiving Service is held each year for the families to commemorate those whose names have been entered in the Memorial Book. Each year details of the Service are announced in the press and special invitations are sent to the families and friends of those who have been entered in the Memorial Book since the last Thanksgiving Service.

Entry is open to all those who have been lost from ships, boats and offshore installations, from air disasters over the sea, from beaches and have no known grave.

Extract from an address at All Hallows by C. J. Spruyt

“In the tradition of the Merchant Navy the names of those lost at sea in peace and in war may be entered in this book. Families, friends and colleagues can thus have a place to visit, to contemplate, to pray; a place which has a connection with their loved ones. You may in the future find this a place of pilgrimage we have all shared our grief and thanksgiving for all the good memories of our lost ones. You children will be able to come here with your friends and your own future families and say “look there’s my Dad” and remember him fondly.”

Reproduction example of entry

Title/Rank	Name	Nationality	Age	Date of Death	Circumstances
Captain	A.N. Other	British	54	31.12.90	Lost off the West African coast under unknown circumstances

Memorial Book Application Form

All entries are subject to acceptance by the Memorial Book Committee. Additional covenants or donations will be gratefully received. The Maritime Foundation, a registered charity, is a sponsor of the Memorial Book. For further information, please contact the Secretary.