UK, Royal Navy and Royal Marine War Graves Roll, 1914-1919

Names of Royal Navy and Royal Marine officers who died in The Great War are listed in this database. While the collection is an index without attached images, it contains a great deal of information about each individual. The original collection is housed in the National Archives of London (TNA).

Two lists of those who died during the Great War were published by His Majesty's Stationery Office in 1921 on behalf of and by authority of the War Office. One volume, packed with minute typescript, gave the basic details of nearly 42,000 officer casualties. It required an additional eighty volumes to list all the 'other ranks' who gave their lives. Each of the original volumes represented one or more regiments, corps or other units of the British Army. Most were subdivided into battalions or similar groupings. There were often thirty or more of these per volume, each in alphabetical order. Within this collection there are 45,000 records from the War Graves Rolls.

From the beginning of the 19th century until well into the 20th century the Royal Navy was the most powerful navy in the world. In 1914 68 battleships, 103 cruisers and 190 torpedo craft made up the Navy’s fleet. During WWI it lost more vessels and had more casualties than the Germans. Despite these losses, however, Navy commanders kept the German Navy closely penned to their own borders.

Would your ancestor have served in the Royal Navy or the Royal Marines? The Corps of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines (RM) worked closely with the Royal Navy under the Naval Service and is the oldest force of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, also known as the Senior Service or the Blue Water Navy (as opposed to brown/river water or green/coastal water). Listed in this database you will be able to find the branch of service in which each individual served and their duties.

Information in this index:

• Name
• Rating (occupation, rank, or classification)
• Branch of Service
• Cause of Death
• Date of Death
• Ship or Unit
• Theater of war
• Relative Notified

Additional Information where known: