GROUT, Geoffrey Donald

  Death Notes:

HMS Forfar had just escorted convoy HX-90 when it was torpedoed 5 times by the German submarine U-99 and sunk.
Name: GROUT, GEOFFREY DONALD
Initials: G D
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Ordinary Seaman
Regiment/Service: Royal Navy
Unit Text: H.M.S. Forfar
Age: 21
Date of Death: 02/12/1940
Service No: C/JX 186994
Additional information: Son of Frederick H. and Maud E. Grout, of Holt, Norfolk.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 36, 2.
Memorial: CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
After the First World 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 were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, who had already carried out a considerable amount of work for the Commission, with sculpture by Henry Poole. It was unveiled on 26 April 1924. 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, but since the three sites were dissimilar, a different architectural treatment was required for each. The architect for the Second World War extension at Chatham was Sir Edward Maufe (who also designed the Air Forces memorial at Runnymede) and the additional sculpture was by Charles Wheeler and William McMillan. Chatham Naval Memorial commemorates 8,517 sailors of the First World War and 10,098 of the Second World War.