- Type of Memorial
- Composite
- WMR Reference Number
- 13633
- Description
- A wood of oak trees representing the 'convoy' of merchant and fishing vessels lost in conflicts of the 20th Century, resulting in the deaths of 46,000 crew. The 2,535 trees each represent a ship lost during WW2. Since they were planted in 1998, natural losses and arboreal thinning have reduced the number of trees still standing to about 1,000. The wood is laid out in the shape of a ship's bows, with a bollard placed at the stem, with the main commemorative tablet on a slim brick plinth, and a flagstaff, behind. The shape of the bows is marked out with a number of mooring bitts - they and the bollard came from Liverpool Docks, principal convoy port in both World Wars. Behind the bollards on the starboard side is a pyramid-shaped Devon limestone rock bearing a black granite tablet incised with the gilded badge and title of the Merchant Navy Association who coordinated the fundraising for the trees in the Wood, which was Dedicated on October 1st 2003. Each tree has a metal reference tag attached to its trunk, which are for the Arboretum's gardeners' use. There is no record linking trees to donors or vessels.
Apart from the main tablet at the 'bows', which is of slate, decorated with the Merchant Navy badge above the gilded inscription, there are a number of other plaques in the Wood giving information about it, including a laminated plastic sign which was placed at the front of the wood when they were first planted. Beneath it is a small slate tablet with white incised lettering within a white circle pointing to a website which gives further information about the ships and lives lost in WW2. The Lions Club International Shelter, on the edge of the Wood, includes a laminated plastic plaque explaining the contribution of the Merchant Navy.
Behind the flagstaff, and along the port side of the Wood are a number of individual Memorials, which are recored separately in the Register. There are also a number of small round cast metal plaques placed in front of individual trees commemorating individual crew and their vessels, but they include crew who have died since WW2. The practice of allowing such individual dedications was stopped across the Arboretum site in 2014.
There is a glade towards the back of the Wood in which there are a number of other individual commemorations. All are listed separately, apart from one recording the role of the Merchant Navy's support of the Royal Navy through crewing vessels of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. This features an anchor from the RFA Sir Percivale, which is mounted on a circular shingle bed, bordered by a circular paved pathway. There are two accompanying metal information plaques, each engraved with the Merchant Navy crest and a depiction of the Sir Percivale, at the edge of the shingle bed and each mounted on a plinth of polished black stone.