Sir Francis Drake

Sailor

A memorial to Sir Francis Drake, Elizabethan sailor and explorer, was unveiled in the south cloister of Westminster Abbey on 4th October 1979. The oval memorial (known as the Navigators' Memorial) also commemorates Captain James Cook and Sir Francis Chichester, who all sailed around the world in different eras.

It was commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster (primarily for the 200th anniversary of Cook's death), and unveiled by former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath, who was also a sailor. An appeal and private funds helped to raise the memorial.

The general design was by the Abbey's Surveyor Peter Foster, and the detail of the marble globe showing the three ships was from a cartoon by Eric Fraser. 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 (Tinos for the background, Lapis Lazuli for the sea, Napoleon for the land areas and Golden Travertine for the ships) shows a map of the world on which are the three ships of the navigators. Three different coloured lines trace the routes they took around the world. In the Portland stone border, carved by Arthur Ayres, are sculptured doves, dolphins and an oak and laurel branch.

His life

Drake was born in 1540 in Crowndale, near Tavistock in Devon, a son of Edmund Drake. His brothers were John and Joseph. He lived in Plymouth with the Hawkins family and sailed on ships belonging to this family. In 1569 he married Mary Newman who died in 1583. HIs second wife was Elizabeth Sydenham.

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. He was made Mayor of Plymouth and he helped bring a water supply to the town. He purchased Buckland Abbey, a former monastery and Drake's drum is preserved there.

In 1587 he sailed to Cadiz to 'singe the King of Spain's beard'. In 1588 Drake fought with the English fleet as a Vice Admiral under Lord Howard of Effingham to defeat the Spanish Armada.

Drake died at Porto Bello while on another voyage on 27th January 1596 and was buried at sea in a lead coffin.

The prayer written by Drake was read at the unveiling service: "O Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter, grant us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it be throughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory; through him who for the finishing of thy work laid down his life for us, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen".