The RWNGC was founded in 1892 under the oversight of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, who lived at Sandringham, which his mother had bought in 1862 for him and his wife Alexandra. The Club has been one of the focal points of Brancaster village ever since, promoting tourism and employment in the locality. The Golf Club has had a number of royal patrons since Edward VII, which enhances its rich heritage; it has made an important contribution to village life over the last 130 years.

One of the prominent features of the Club is the Memorial Gate, which commemorates the sacrifice of 40 members of the RWNGC and the Brancaster Village Golf Club (BVGC) in the two World Wars. The memorial was celebrated very recently in a service, led by the Rector, involving relatives of those who are commemorated.

The Memorial was originally dedicated on Easter Sunday 1921, having been under discussion at the AGM of the Brancaster Village Golf Club at the Ship Inn in March 1919. It was agreed that the names of all those who had lost their lives would be included in a single list, irrespective of whether they were RWNGC or BVGC members. The memorial was subsequently moved in 1955 to its present location because of the problems of drifting sand.

Of the 40 names on the Memorial one is of a woman, Commander Mo Boughey, who was in the Field Army Nursing Yeomanry, and killed in 1945: she is remembered in a close named after her in the village. Another name is that of Major Henry Head, who lost his life off Ceylon, when his ship was sunk by the Japanese. Captain Julian Cory-Wright was killed in the battle of Caen on June 14th 1944. However, all the names have a story that deserves to be told and their sacrifice remembered.

Perhaps the most notable of the names on the Memorial is that of Prince George, Duke of Kent. The fourth son of King George V, he was born in 1902 on the Sandringham estate. He was the younger brother to Edward VIII and George VI.

On leaving school, Prince George served in the Royal Navy, then briefly in the civil service. In 1934 he married Princess Marina of Greece, with whom he had three children: Princes Edward and Michael, and Princess Alexandra. By the 1930s he had progressed in military rank as was – and is – the feature of the Royal Family; he had become a Rear Admiral, Major General and Air Vice-Marshall. During World War Two he served in the RAF on the staff at Training Command and then in the Inspector General’s department.

The Prince was killed, along with 13 others, when the Sunderland flying boat in which he was travelling crashed on its way to Iceland at Eagles Rock, Dunbeath, Caithness. It was rumoured that he was piloting the plane at the time, though this was never verified; the official enquiry found that there was a navigational error in conditions of heavy fog and mist.

At the recent commemorative event for the Memorial the service ended with the quotation:

“When you go home, tell them of us, and say
For your tomorrow we gave our today”

The pictures show the Memorial Gate and the names of those who gave their lives in the Second World War.