Georgina Williams

On Boxing Day 1950, snow had fallen over the Naval Dockyard Church as Georgina Jarvis walked down the aisle to marry her sweetheart Donald Williams.

The love-birds had special permission to marry in the grand 19th century church because Georgina’s father was head groundsman at the dockyard and Donald was a boilermaker.

“It was a bright and crisp day with blue skies,” recalls Georgina, 92.

“The church looked absolutely beautiful, all decked in holly, and light flooded through the stained glass windows picking up the decorations of gold, cream and blue. We were still in times of rationing so I borrowed my sister-in-law’s wedding dress – it was a satin ivory gown, fitted with tiny covered buttons below the waist. My mother and I made the two bridesmaids’ dresses after sending off for the material. One was pink and the other blue. The pink matched the chrysanthemums in my winter bouquet.”

Donald’s brother Leslie was best man with Georgina’s sister Glenys, nine, and family friend Christine Hall, as bridesmaids.

A decade later, the happiness of Georgina and Donald’s wedding day was shattered when their whole family, along with thousands of others, were hit by the closure of Sheerness Dockyard. It had been one of the Royal Navy’s most important sites for more than 300 years.

Great-grandmother Georgina, who still lives on the Isle of Sheppey, in Minster, has since watched the church deteriorate and was ‘horrified ’ when it caught fire in 2001.

But news that work has started to rebuild it using a £4.2m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund has lifted her spirits.

The Naval Dockyard Church is considered to be one of the UK’s great forgotten monuments and Georgina agrees. She said: “It was always ‘the father of all churches’ to me.

“My family had a long relationship there. Donald’s grandfather used to tend the gardens and my brothers Bill, Trevor and Ray were in the choir.”

“Trevor met his wife there. My brothers also played in the St John Ambulance Band and on Remembrance Sunday there was always a big parade with marching bands so the church was always packed. It was a real occasion. As children, we would sit upstairs looking down on all of the uniformed officers. My son Stephen was one of the last to be christened at the church before the dockyard closed in 1960. And then everything changed. It was a terrible shock, a real slap in the face for the Island. So many workers, more than 2,500 lost their jobs, so you can imagine how many families suffered.”

“My family had a long relationship there. Donald’s grandfather used to tend the gardens and my brothers Bill, Trevor and Ray were in the choir.”

If you have your own memories of the dockyard church – as a church, a social club or as it is now, we’d love to hear from you. We're also keen to build an image archive by making copies of photographs and memorabilia of the church.

If you’d like to contribute memories or images to the archive, please tell us a bit more about what you have using the form.