​​Christ Church, Portsdown​

​​In the run-up to D-Day, a number of staff from the British 2nd Army attended a service at Christ Church. The service was organised and conducted by the Reverend RBS Gillman and assisted by General Sir Miles Dempsey, the commander of the British 2nd Army. Taking place two days before D-Day, this service was “to dedicate to Almighty God the task which lay before them.”

​On 6 June 1948, General Sir Miles Dempsey returned to Christ Church for a commemorative service in which thanks was given to God and attendants were asked to help heal the wounds of war and to strive to create a world in which war would cease. During this service, the church was presented with two stained glass windows, which were personally unveiled by Dempsey himself.  

​The D-Day windows in the church depict St Michael and St George as symbolical soldiers. St Michael holds the shield of St George, while St George holds a shield with a blue cross, which was the insignia of the British 2nd Army. The left window shows soldiers disembarking from landing craft. In the right window a tank advancing through countryside is visible. 

​At the rear of the church is a CWGC plot with 172 Commonwealth War Graves, of which around 30 date from the Second World War. These include Mabel Scott, a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War), and three men aged 57, 52 and 51. Two of them served with the 23rd Bomb Disposal Company, Royal Engineers, the other with the 13th (Home Defence) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment.