What traditional British naval songs are there appropriate for a funeral?

Answer 1

"Eternal Father, Strong to Save": The Navy Hymn

The song known to United States Navy men and women as the "Navy Hymn," is a musical benediction that long has had a special appeal to seafaring men, particularly in the American Navy and the Royal Navies of the British Commonwealth and which, in more recent years, has become a part of French naval tradition.


The original words were written as a hymn by a schoolmaster and clergyman of the Church of England, the Rev. William Whiting. Rev. Whiting (1825-1878) resided on the English coast near the sea and had once survived a furious storm in the Mediterranean. His experiences inspired him to pen the ode, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save." In the following year, 1861, the words were adapted to music by another English clergyman, the Rev. John B. Dykes (1823-1876) , who had originally written the music as "Melita" (ancient name for the Mediterranean island of Malta). Rev. Dykes' name may be recognized as that of the composer given credit for the music to many other well-known hymns, including "Holy, Holy, Holy," "Lead, Kindly Light," "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," and "Nearer, My God to Thee."

Answer 2

"Soldiers of the Queen" by Leslie Stuart:

Britain's always loyally declaimed

About the way we rule the waves

Every Briton's song is just the same

When singing of her soldiers brave

All the world that's heard it

Wonders why we sing

Some have learned the reason why

We're not forgetting it

We're not letting it

Fade away or gradually die (2)

So when we say that England's master

Remember who has made it so

It's the soldiers of the queen, my lad

Who've seen, my lad, who've been my lad

In the fight for England's glory lad

Of its worldwide glory let us sing

And when we say we've always won

And when they ask us how it's done

We'll proudly point to every one

Of England's soldiers of the queen.