History

A memorial to Sir Francis Drake, Elizabethan sailor and explorer, was unveiled in the south cloister of Westminster Abbey on 4 October 1979. The oval memorial, designed by Eric Fraser, also commemorates Captain James Cook and Sir Francis Chichester, who all sailed round the world in different eras. The Latin inscription around the border can be translated:

"Circumnavigators of the world. Sir Francis Drake. Captain James Cook. Sir Francis Chichester".

The mosaic of coloured marbles in the oval shows a map of the world on which are three ships. Three different coloured lines trace the routes the navigators took around the world. In the stone border are sculptured doves, dolphins and an oak and laurel branch.

Drake was born in 1540 in Crowndale, near Tavistock in Devon, a son of Edmund Drake. He lived in Plymouth with the Hawkins family and sailed on ships belonging to this family. In 1569 he married Mary Newman. Sir Francis Walsingham sent Drake on a voyage around the world, where he raided Spanish settlements in South America and the Pacific. In 1580 he arrived home after a three year voyage in the Golden Hind (formerly the Pelican) and was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. In 1588 Drake fought with the English fleet as a Vice Admiral under Lord Howard of Effingham to defeat the Spanish Armada. Drake died while on another voyage on 27 January 1596 and was buried in a lead coffin in the sea off Panama.

A photo of the memorial can be purchased from Westminster Abbey Library.

Further reading:

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004.

Drake relics are housed at Buckland Abbey in Devon and Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire.