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Gosport National Coastwatch Station Honours The “Eternal Watchkeeper”

Several of the National Coastwatch personnel based at National Coastwatch Institution Gosport are veterans of the Royal Navy’s Submarine Service which was based here at HMS Dolphin for many years before the Submariners’ Training School was finally moved to HMS Raleigh at Torpoint in Cornwall in 1998.

HMS Dolphin had been the headquarters of Flag Officer Submarines since 1901 and it is only fitting that all those who served in the “Silent Service” should be commemorated by this fine memorial sculpture of Leading Seaman Reginald Read who had served as a Torpedo Gunner in submarines between 1939 and 1947.


 

He is depicted as the “Eternal Watchkeeper” on lookout duty at sea with his binoculars at the ready, a scene still replicated today by highly trained National Coastwatch Volunteers as they watch over the safety of people and vessels in the congested waters of the Eastern Solent.

The original full-size statue is part of a Combined Services Memorial in Westminster Abbey but there is also a smaller version displayed in the Submariners’ Memorial Church inside Fort Blockhouse in memory of the 174 British Submarines and their crews that have been lost in accidents or on active service during the Navy’s long association with these vessels.

The National Coastwatch Institution has also come a long way since its original inception in 1994; it is now a highly valued asset of HM Coastguard’s Search & Rescue Service and has helped to save many lives around the coasts of England and Wales in recent years.

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