The Chatham Naval Memorial stands on the highest point of the Great Lines Heritage Park, just west of Gillingham. It is one of three identical Royal Navy memorials (the others are at Plymouth and Portsmouth) designed by Sir Robert Lorimer and unveiled in 1924, with sculpture by Henry Poole. A 30-metre Portland stone obelisk crowned by a copper galleon, it commemorates 8,517 Royal Navy sailors of the First World War and 10,098 of the Second who have no known grave but the sea — all of whom were lost on ships manned from the Chatham depot.
The names are listed by year of loss on the surrounding bronze panels. From the obelisk, a sweeping view opens across the Medway towards the Historic Dockyard. Free, open at all times, and quietly one of the most affecting Commonwealth War Graves Commission sites in the south-east.