WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

This week we will be honouring those Coastguards who died during the First World War in the service of their country.

At that time, Coastguards could be called upon by the Royal Navy as reservists and posted to ships due to their expertise in signalling.   Each year HM Coastguard sends a contingent of Coastguards from around the UK to the national service of remembrance at the Cenotaph in London. HM Coastguard itself suffered considerable losses in the early months of the war, and following this, the Admiralty decided to return the majority of Coastguard personnel back to their stations. 

For the remainder of the war, shore based Coastguards continued with their duties as well as manning War Signal Stations, undertaking dangerous and highly specialised disposal of mines and keeping a watch for spies or saboteurs who may have tried to land.  They also provided early warning of raids by German warships and assisted the police and army in rounding up suspects and escaped POWs.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the naval battle involving the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue in the North Sea.  These three ships were torpedoed and sank. 

The majority of the 1,459 men listed as killed or missing in action from these vessels were Coastguards.

Laurence Binyon wrote the ‘Ode of Remembrance’ while he was sitting on the cliffs near Portreath in Cornwall;  

“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.”

On behalf of HM Coastguard, we will remember them.

Richard Martin, Chief Coastguard.




Painting of the battle by John Hope, RCCM Liverpool Coastguard




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