Many of the sailors and marines killed at Zeebrugge were buried in a little cemetery outside Dover. A funeral service was held on 27th April 1918 and
the whole population of Dover turned out to show their respect. Flowers were sent from all over England.
After the war the Anglo-Belgian Union erected a memorial erected at the shore end of
the Zeebrugge Mole in the form of a figure of St George and the Dragon on the top of a tall column. People from all over England, Belgium and France subscribed to the memorial which was unveiled by the King
and Queen of Belgium on St George's Day in 1925.
The Royal Navy invited all those who had taken part in the raid to sail from Dover to Zeebrugge on a cruiser and a great many took advantage
of this offer. A large crowd of Belgians gathered to greet them and the Belgian King made a speech saying that the attack had given the Belgians fresh hope in one of the darkest hours of the War. Sadly this
memorial was demolished by the Germans during the Second World War, but a new smaller memorial has been built in its place.
Roger Keyes himself was knighted by the King at Buckingham Palace and
awarded a grant of ¥10,000 by Parliament. The First World War had brought him rapid promotion and he was revered throughout the country as the hero of Zeebrugge. But as a very young Admiral he found it
difficult to maintain his seniority in the navy after the war.
Between the wars he was an ardent promoter of a larger Royal Navy, but the money and political will was lacking and he failed
to win support for his views within government. As a result he failed to achieve the most senior naval post of First Sea Lord. His curse was to be too young for the most senior posts immediately after the
First World War and then too old for the Second World War.
Fame had made Keyes difficult to deal with, a problem suffered by other Zeebrugge heroes including Capt. Carpenter. Carpenter's
grand daughter felt that his whole life after Zeebrugge had been an anti-climax.
At the age of sixty Keyes had a final chance to put his undoubted talents and experience to good use. In 1940
his old friend Winston Churchill appointed him Director of Combined Operations with the task of organising, once again, amphibious attacks against the Germans across the Channel.
At about this time Keyes'
son Geoffrey, who had inherited much of his fathers' daring nature, led an attack against Rommel's headquarters in North Africa, but was killed in the raid. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Back
in England Keyes found it impossible to work within the team structure that modern warfare demanded. Finally Churchill was forced to relieve him of his duties and he was sent to advise the US Navy on their
amphibious landings against the Japanese in the Pacific.
Later in 1940 he was appointed to the House of Lords choosing the title Baron Keyes of Zeebrugge. He died in 1942 and many in the
country felt he should have been buried with full military honours in Westminster Abbey alongside Nelson. But his final wish was to be buried with his fallen Zeebrugge comrades in the small cemetery of St
John's Church in Dover.
