The huge expanse of the Great Lines was in its own right a layer of defence to protect Chatham Dockyard from attack.

The obelisks were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer[2] and the one at Chatham originally contained 8,515 names.

They include two Victoria Cross recipients, Skipper Thomas Crisp (Merchant Marine), and Major Francis John William Harvey (Royal Marines Light Infantry),[3] besides poet Flight Commander Jeffery Day (Royal Naval Air Service)[4] and England rugby international, Surgeon James (Bungy) Watson.

[7] After the Second World War and its consequent loss of life, the decision was made to expand the three memorials and so the Chatham Naval Memorial was created from the 'Chatham Obelisk' and was given a surround designed by Sir Edward Maufe which contains 10,098 additional names from the later conflict.

[6] The memorial featured prominently in the 1996 novel Last Orders by British author Graham Swift, as did the Medway Towns.