Lest we forget

This is St Clement's Church, A Norman church which sits at the top of the cliffs overlooking the Thames Estuary, it has seen boats both military and civilian, going down to the sea during major conflicts and planes using the River Thames as a path to London.


In the quiet graveyard at the back of the Church is a memorial to four cockle boat men who took a boat called The Endeavour over to France to evacuate men off the Dunkirk beaches.  Cockle boats were invaluable as they had shallow drafts and could get close to the shore and ferried out nearly 1,000 men out to the larger boats.  After successfully completing this mission, Endeavour hit a mine on its journey home and lost all hands.

Today I am remembering,  Frank Osborne, Lukie Osborne, Harry Noakes and Harold Porter.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them

They mingle  not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home,

They have no lot in labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.