Qualla: Dover Patrol Monument

Dover Patrol Monument: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Velvet, CC BY-SA 3.0. Three identical obelisks of granite, 75 feet tall, stand on three coasts of two oceans. One sits on the cliffs above St Margaret's Bay near Dover. One stands above Cap Blanc-Nez near Calais, where you can sometimes see the Dover memorial across the water on a clear day. The third was raised in 1931 in John Paul Jones Park in Brooklyn, New York, near where the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge now crosses the harbour entrance. The three together commemorate the Dover Patrol - the Royal Navy's vital and almost-forgotten First World War operation that kept the English Channel open and the German U-boats out, at a cost of about 2,000 lives.

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Image: Velvet | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dover Patrol Monument: The Patrol

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ottaviani Serge, Public domain. The Dover Patrol was assembled in July 1914 around a core of twelve Tribal class destroyers and then grew enormously. Cruisers and destroyers, old and new, mixed with submarines, minesweepers, armed trawlers, drifters, armed yachts, motor launches and other coastal craft. French ...

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Image: Ottaviani Serge | Public domain

Dover Patrol Monument: Zeebrugge

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marek.69, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the night of 22-23 April 1918, the Dover Patrol mounted its most spectacular action: the Zeebrugge Raid, a daring attempt to block the entrance to the port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and trap the German destroyers and U-boats sheltering inside. The operation was partly a success and ...

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Image: Marek.69 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dover Patrol Monument: Sir Aston Webb's Obelisk

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 3.0. A committee formed in November 1918 to raise public subscription for a monument. Over 45,000 pounds came in, including 1,000 pounds from King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians, whose country the patrol had helped supply throughout the war. The architect chosen was Sir As...

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Image: Ethan Doyle White | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dover Patrol Monument: Three Coasts

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jim.henderson, CC0. The first obelisk's foundation stone was laid at Leathercote Point above St Margaret's Bay on 19 November 1919 by Prince Arthur of Connaught, on land donated by the 3rd Earl Granville. The completed monument was unveiled on 27 July 1921 by the Prince of Wales (later briefly Edwar...

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Image: Jim.henderson | CC0

Dover Patrol Monument: The Book of Remembrance

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0. Inside the parish church at St Margaret's at Cliffe, a Book of Remembrance lists the names of nearly 2,000 men who died serving in the Dover Patrol. The names are not on the obelisk itself - there is no room - but on the carefully copied book pages held in the village church a sh...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 4.0