Situated to the side of the Admiralty Extension and the Admiralty Citadel, which overlook Horse Guards Parade, is the Royal Naval Divisional Memorial.
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Admiralty Extension Horse Guards
RND Memorial to the left
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RND Memorial Horse Guards
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The Royal Naval Division was formed in 1914 from a surplus of Naval and Royal Marine reservists and volunteers who were not needed for service at sea. They were embodied on 16th August 1914, raising two new brigades augmenting the existing Marine Brigade, to form the Royal Naval Division.
The Marine Brigade Battalions were named after naval depot ports; Chatham, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Deal. The naval brigade's battalions were named after naval commanders; 1st (Royal Navy) Brigade - Drake, Hawke, Benbow, Collingwood; 2nd (Royal Navy) Brigade - Nelson, Howe, Hood, Anson. The sailors and marines were to perform the functions of infantry, and had no integral supporting arms (no Divisional Artillery) or logistics units.
The Divisions first action was in the Defence of Antwerp. They landed at Ostende in October 1914, and moved to Antwerp. However, they were forced to withdraw, together with the Belgian Field Army, as the Germans launched their assault on the City. The RND units returned to England with the exception of 1,500 sailors from the 1st (Royal Navy) Brigade who crossed into neutral Netherlands and were interned for the duration of the war.
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| Royal Naval Division Antwerp |
On the 30th April 1915 the Royal Naval Division landed in Gallipoli to reinforce the 29th Division who had made the initial assault on the peninsular a week earlier. The envisaged swift victory against Turkish forces failed, and the British and ANZAC troops became lacked in a brutal war of attrition lasting 10 months. The failure of the campaign lead to Allied forces being withdrawn, and the peninsular was evacuated in January 1916.
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| Royal Naval Division Gallipoli |
On the 29th April 1916, the RND transferred from the authority of the Admiralty to the War Office under Army control.
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| Royal Naval Division Patch |
The division landed in Marseilles in May 1916 and headed to the Somme. As part of the Army structure, the Division received support and logistics units, including Divisional Artillery. The RND was designated 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, the three Brigades being numbered 188, 189 and 190 Brigades.
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| Royal Naval Division France and Flanders |
The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division served in France and Flanders till the end of the war, being demobilised in April 1919. The Division was engaged the following Battles;
The Operations on the Ancre (January-March 1917)
Battle of Arras 1917
Third Battles of Ypres 1917
Cambrai operations 1917
First Battles of the Somme 1918
Second Battles of the Somme 1918
Second Battles of Arras 1918
Battles of Hindenburg Line 1918
Final Advance in Picardy 1918
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63rd (Royal Naval) Division Artillery
The original 63rd Division was the Second Line Northumbrian Division, intergral was the second line Northumbria Divisional Artillery. When the Royal Naval Division came under Army authority, the second line combat support and logistics were transferred from the Norrthumbrians when that Division was broken up in May 1916.
The Divisional Artilley joined the 63rd (RN) Division on 5th July 1916. The initial Brigades were the 315th, 316th and 317th Brigades RFA equipped with 18 pounders, and 318th Brigade RFA with 4.5 inch howitzers. There were also three Medium Trench Mortar Batteries, and at the end of July a Heavy Trench Mortar Battery. The 1/4 (Home Counties) howitzer Briage also joined the RND, and was broken up.
The 315th Brigade left the Division in February 1917 to become an Army Field Brigade.
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Royal Naval Division Memorial
The Royal Naval Memorial was designed by Sir Edward Lutyens and unveiled on 25th April 1925. The memorial bears the cap badges of each of the RND's battalions and supporting arms. It records the battle honours of the Division.
The memorial was dismantled in 1939 when the Admiralty Citadel was built. It was re-erected in 1951 at the Royal Naval College Greenwich, where it remained until the college closed in 1998. It was moved back to it's original location at Horse Guards and unveiled in 2003.
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| Royal Naval Division Memorial |
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Royal Naval Division Memorial
Divisional Artillery
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