Memorial plans for HMS Royal Oak in Portsmouth is set to be decided

The HMS Royal Oak Association submitted plans for the 8ft obelisk at The Hard earlier this year in a bid to build a permanent publicly-accessible remembrance point. Members of Portsmouth City Council’s planning committee will be asked to grant planning permission when they meet on Wednesday (August 2) to discuss the scheme.

“The proposal is a relatively modest and discreet memorial and is similar to other memorials within Portsmouth,” a report published ahead of the meeting says. “The use of abbey grey granite is appropriate.

“Given the character, nearby to the Historic Dockyard, such a memorial would not be out of place.”

HMS Royal Oak was one of five Revenge-class battleships built during the First World War and more than 800 people died when it sank after a torpedo attack in Scapa Flow early in the Second World War.

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The associations hosts an annual remembrance event in Portsmouth but said it was difficult to access the only existing memorial in the city at the naval base.

“It is probably the single biggest maritime loss tied to Portsmouth,” the association’s honorary secretary Gareth Derbyshire said at last year’s event. “The only dedicated memorial is one we unveiled to coincide with 80th anniversary, and that’s a stone plaque on the wall of St Ann’s Church in the naval base. We’re very fortunate to have it, but the only slight drawback is that you need security clearance to get in there.”

The association has already collected the funds for the installation of the obelisk but faced difficulties in progressing plans due to the city council’s policy restricting the erection of new memorials. The policy focuses on four “saturation zones” where new memorials are not allowed, unless there are exceptional circumstances. These are: Victoria Park, the seafront/Southsea Common, Guildhall Square and Old Portsmouth. The choice of The Hard, which falls outside of these, meant the planning application could be submitted.

An objection was made by the Portsmouth Society which questioned the design of the obelisk and location.

The objection said: “Whether it is the right one to commemorate the lives of the 835 who died as a result of the sinking in Scapa Flow is open to question, given that she was built in Devonport, for most of her career she was based elsewhere and she was sunk in the Orkneys.”

The society said it ‘commended the initiative’ but suggested Portland stone as a more suitable material for the memorial than abbey grey granite and urged the amount of text to be reduced.

The application is being considered by the planning committee because it is on council-owned land.