Randolph Charles Lemon was born on 23rd September 1900. An only child, his parents were Charles and Edith. Charles was a schoolmaster from Hampton Wick, Middlesex, by he and Edith raised their son at 176 Union Road, Leytonstone, Essex.

There is little information available about Randolph’s life. When war broke out he stepped up to play his part, but the only documentation about his time at sea confirms that he served as a Midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve. Randolph was assigned to the TSS Hurunui, owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company, in April 1916. By the spring of 1918, however, he had transferred to the destroyer HMS Exe.

That March Exe was sailing with HMS Kale south down the eastern coast of Britain, from Hull to Portsmouth. On 27th March 1918, both ships inadvertently steered six miles out of a clear channel and into a British-laid minefield. Both ships hit mines and the Kale was sunk, with the loss of 41 lives. The Exe floundered and, while the full impact is unclear, Midshipman Lemon was killed in the incident. He was just 17 years of age.

The Exe made it to the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. Randolph Charles Lemon’s body was laid to rest in the naval section of Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent.

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The loss of their only child at such a young age must have been for his parents to bear. The 1921 census found Charles and Elizabeth had moved to Ilford, Essex, where Charles was now teaching.

Charles died in 1939, at the age of 65, Elizabeth passing away in February 1967, aged 90. Both were buried with their son: a family reunited after nearly five decades.

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