Naval & Military Memorials of Rochester Cathedral
/Retired Colonel Roy J. Trett, OBE, TD was a member of the Cathedral community for many years. His research notes on the men behind the military memorials are bound in 5 volumes in the Chapter Library.
Trett himself features in a photograph of officers of 166 and 308 (City of Rochester) HAA Batteries, 55th (Kent) HAA Regiment RA, TA taken at Watchet Practice Camp, 1939, on the occasion of the visit by Alderman Knight JP Mayor of Rochester, which is to be found within the first volume. The standards of the two batteries which were carried by them in the Second World War were laid up in the Cathedral on Sunday 11th April 1948 and hang in the North Quire Transept.
Back row: 2/Lt. G. Armitage, S. T. Style, G. Barrett, Gay-French, J. J. Shelton. Middle row: Lt H. R. Taylor, 2/Lts. C Latlin, Wilkinson, A. Wheeley, G. Dakers, W. Brice, R. J. Trett, C. J. Caffin, Lt.(QM) Gillman. Front row: Percival Esq. (Town Clerk), Major J. S. C. Edmonds, Col. Hinchley-Cooke, OBE, Ald. Sherwin-Knight (Mayor), Lt. Col. Davey, Capt. J. Breeze (A/Major), Capt. R. Sutton and Capt. R. Howell.
Collections
Four distinct collections of military memorials are found at the Cathedral: the mural memorials and stained glass windows to the Royal Engineers, officials from Chatham Dockyards, those to Old Roffensians and the memorials, books of memory and standards of the Royal Marines.
The medieval tombs of the Presbytery and Quire Transept have had a tortured history which many effigies apparently moved and several defaced along with the medieval memorials and brasses over the Early Modern period.
Rochester Cathedral features an exceptionally large collection of Colonial-era military memorials and artefacts. This series has begun to highlight the stories behind these collections and their place in our global heritage.
