Armed forces and merchant navy

Sidmouth Cemetery has several graves of those who served in the armed forces and the merchant navy.

COMMONWEALTH GRAVES

Visiting graves is of interest to many – and the Visit Devon webpage gives a first guide to Devon’s Commonwealth Graves

Going to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for Sidmouth Cemetery, we learn that “It contains 15 burials of the 1914-1918 War, including that of an unknown Merchant seaman and a further 9 burials of the 1939-1945 War”.

For a further guide around these, there is an excellent YouTube video of Sidmouth Cemetery: A walk among the memorials in this scenic graveyard.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH BY JOHN MCCARTHY

Local historian John McCarthy has carried out extensive research on graves at Sidmouth Cemetery.

In a piece from 2015 on the India connection and burials in Sidmouth Cemetery, “it is now largely forgotten that Sidmouth was a favoured retirement and holiday destination for officers returning from India.”

In a further fascinating piece on how 1917 was a bleak year for Sidmouth service personnel, John also observes that several of these cemeteries overseas are sadly neglected.

This is not the case, fortunately, in Sidmouth. Not only are the CSC volunteers doing their best to clear the graves of brambles and to record by photograph these important parts of Sidmouth’s heritage – but John McCarthy has carried out significant research of the military graves at Sidmouth Cemetery.

One such grave is that of Colonel Charles James William Grant who to Sidmouth in the 1930s – the only recipient of the Victoria Cross buried in East Devon and whose grave in Sidmouth Cemetery “had fallen into serious disrepair [and whose] restoration was undertaken by the Sidmouth branch of the Royal British Legion“. 

John McCarthy has now very generously given permission to the VGS Cherishing Sidmouth Cemeteries project to provide a link to his subsequent very considerable research – which has resulted in the British Military History in Sidmouth Cemetery – 2025, which can now be viewed in its entirety on this website.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The Cherishing Sidmouth Cemeteries web-pages have already referred to John’s work in the pages on discovering graves at Sidmouth Cemetery – and the volunteers of CSC working party have been very busy since its inception in clearing several graves, including those of two fearless army chaplains who retired to Sidmouth, as covered in another piece by John McCarthy.

Interestingly, the service of those who served in the merchant navy has only just been recognised. In September 2025, a Sidmouth memorial service honoured Merchant Navy veterans, when Sidmouth Town Clerk Chris Holland facilitated the raising of the Red Ensign.

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