About project Vernon

Founded in 2008, Project Vernon is the name of the charity that has designed, funded, constructed and installed the monument at the former HMS VERNON, in Portsmouth, Hampshire.  Formerly the home to a range of specialist underwater warfare organisations, HMS VERNON provided a significant contribution to the defence of the nation for several centuries through the many skilled personnel who worked, trained and were based within her walls. 

The two tonne, one-and-a-quarter life-size Vernon Monument stands in 1.2 metres of water in Pool B at Gunwharf Quays where it will be seen by a footfall of 8 million per year.  The Monument commemorates the mine warfare & diving heritage of HMS VERNON and celebrates all those involved in mine warfare, be it mine design, mining, minesweeping and mine hunting, as well as service diving and naval bomb & mine disposal - past, present and future.  It also acts as a fitting memorial to those who have died while engaged in such activities and is a monument to all who served in the establishment and its attached units.

The Vernon Monument

Location

The monument ‘floats’ in the centre of Pool B, the middle of the three pools in the former HMS Vernon site, now the Gunwharf Quays residential and retail park. The location is an enclosed sea water lock some 1.2 metres deep.

Previously, the waterway was a tidal canal known as “Vernon Creek” that serviced the King’s Mill located some four hundred metres to the east. In the 20th Century it was the regular berth for a range of Royal Navy/Royal Naval Reserve and Auxiliary vessels when HMS Vernon was operating at its peak as an operational Naval establishment and busy specialist training base for a variety of mainly underwater warfare schools. The print of Vernon Creek from the original painting by John Terry (available from the online Shop) shows typical vessels as used in the prosecution of mine warfare and diving activities during the 1970s.