- Type of Memorial
- Stone of remembrance
- WMR Reference Number
- 74191
- Description
- A bronze plaque mounted onto a bolder in a secluded area of Exbury Gardens overlooking the Beaulieu River. The dedication is in raised lettering, below the insignia of the LST & Landing Craft Association. Alongside is an information board mounted on a wooden frame which explains how the plaque came to be located at Exbury.
- Inscription
- Plaque : L.S.T. & LANDING CRAFT ASSOCIATION/[Insignia]/
IN COMMEMORATION OF H.M.’s SAILORS/ AND ROYAL MARINES OF THE BRITISH/ ROYAL NAVY WHO MANNED THE/ LANDING SHIPS AND LANDING CRAFT/ AND LOST THEIR LIVES DURING/ THE LIBERATION OF EUROPE IN 1944./ “LEST WE FORGET”
Information Board: [Insignia]/ The Arromanches Plaque/
Exbury House was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1942, and became the 'stone frigate'/ HMS Mastodon which played an important part in the Normandy Landings of 1944. It was responsible/ for the victualling, arming and training of the landing crews, and for much of the planning. In this way/ Exbury House made a vital contribution to the amphibious assault by Allied Forces on D-Day, 6 June/ 1944. For some of the many brave men and women who departed in the landing craft on D-Day, the/ view of the Beaulieu River and Solent, which you see ahead would have been their last sight of England./
On the other side of the Channel, the small town of Arromanches in Normandy played a/ significant role; lying behind Gold Beach, where many of those who left the Solent and Beaulieu/ River arrived. It was heavily shelled. When the commemorative plaque set into the Allied/ Forces Memorial at Arromanches was replaced in 2002, the LST and Landing Craft Association,/ and the Exbury Veterans Association determined that its final resting place should be at Exbury.