John McNish was born in the Staffordshire city of Wolverhampton on 26th June 1897. The oldest of six children, his parents were railway porter James McNish and his wife Mary Ann.
Sadly there is little documentation to evidence John’s early life. When he left school, he seemed to have joined his father in becoming a porter and, when war broke out, he joined the Royal Navy, given the rank of Ordinary Seaman in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was based at HMS Pembroke, the shore-based establishment at Chatham Naval Dockyard in Kent.
In the summer of 1917 HMS Pembroke was becoming crowded and John was billeted at the Chatham Drill Hall. On the night of 3rd September, the building took a direct hit from a German bomber. Ordinary Seaman McNish, along with 97 others, was killed instantly. He was just 20 years old.
John McNish was buried in the nearby Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, along with dozens of others who perished that night.
Ordinary Seaman John McNish (from findagrave.com)
Full details of the night raid on Chatham Drill Hall can be found here.
Frederick John Shiplee was born on 15th November 1895 in the Essex town of Harwich. The oldest of eight children, his parents were Frederick and Matilda. Frederick Sr worked as a carter for the local railway, while his son found employment as a butcher’s errand boy when he left school.
In November 1913, having just turned 18, Frederick Jr enlisted in the Royal Navy as an Officer’s Steward, and spent three years training and serving on board HMS Ganges, the shore establishment at Shotley, near Ipswich.
From Suffolk, Frederick moved to Kent, and was based at the HMS Pembroke in Chatham. From here, he was involved in trips on HMS Spey, an old river gunboat that had been converted for use as a diving tender. It was during one of these trips that tragedy struck.
STORY OF A COLLISION IN THE THAMES
Mr CB Sewell resumed the inquest at Chatham, on Monday, on the 13 naval men who lost their lives after a collision between the London County Council steam hopper Belvedere and an old naval vessel in the Thames on March 7th [1917]…
The collision occurred shortly before four o’clock in the afternoon, the weather being bitterly cold and boisterous, and the sea extremely rough. The men, who had taken to a raft, were drifting about till 9pm before the raft was driven ashore. On the raft, when discovered, were a pile of dead men, who had been rendered unconscious by the cold and subsequently drowned through the raft being partly submerged. Lieutenant Humphreys, Royal Naval Reserve, and the other officers were all drowned. In all, 30 of the 37 members of the ship’s company lost their lived, and several bodies have not been recovered. Thirteen of the ship’s crew managed to get ashore at Sheerness in the cutter and three reached the shore at the Isle of Grain in the gig, while one was saved by the hopper.
Arthur George Chick, able seaman, said he was at the wheel of the naval vessel, which was steaming up river at six knots an hour to secure shelter from the weather. Lieutenant Humphreys and a warrant officer were on the bridge, and there were two look-out men. All were now missing. He saw the hopper coming down the river when she was two miles away. When the vessels were nearing each other, the hopper suddenly altered her course to starboard. The witness then altered his course to port by his officer’s orders, but the hopper crashed into his ship, stroking it a glancing blow in line with the forepart of the bridge on the starboard side. The ship sank in three minutes.
Alfred Rawlings, leading signalman, stated that the hopper changed her course when almost abreast of the naval vessel. The hopper’s alteration of course was, he considered, the cause of the collision.
Henry Davies, second officer, and Joseph Beard Hasdell, master of the hopper, gave evidence that they considered the collision was caused through the naval vessel’s error of judgment in starboarding, instead of going to port. The hopper, they stated, ported its helm in accordance with the ‘rule of the road’.
South Eastern Gazette: Tuesday 27th March 1917
While not mentioned in the newspaper report for security reasons, the ‘old naval vessel’ was, in fact HMS Spey. Annoyingly, I can trace no further report of the inquest, other than the conclusion that the deaths were due to drowning following a collision at sea.
Officer’s Steward Shiplee was one of the twenty men who died that day. He was just 21 years of age.
Frederick John Shiplee’s body was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, not far from the Naval Dockyard in Chatham, where he had been based.
Sidney William Alner was born in Shaftesbury, Dorset, in March 1899, one of eleven children to Sidney and Ellen Alner. Sidney Sr was a grocer’s porter, and the family lived on the celebrated Gold Hill in the town.
War was to come when Sidney Jr was only young – he had just turned 15 when it broke out. He saw his older brothers go off to war and was obviously keen to do his bit as well. Until he was old enough, however, he worked as an errand boy for his father’s employers, Stratton Sons and Mead.
His time would come, of course, although dates for Sidney’s enlistment are not clear. A contemporary newspaper record confirms that he arrived in France in January 1918, so it is likely that Private Alner joined up at some point during the previous year.
He joined the Hampshire Regiment, and was assigned to the 1st Battalion. Heavily involved during most of the conflict, the battalion was seen as key to the Final Advance of the autumn of 1918. Private Alner was caught up in the fight to break the Hindenburg Line, fighting on the River Selle and capturing the town of Monchaux.
It was while his battalion was advancing on the village of Préseau on 2nd November, that Private Alner was injured. Shot in the arm, he was evacuated back to England, and admitted to the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot. He would have survived his injuries, had pneumonia not set in, and it was to this that he would succumb on 19th November. He was just 19 years old.
Sidney William Alner’s body was brought back to Dorset. He lies at rest in the Holy Trinity Churchyard in Somerset, within walking distance of his family’s home.
Sidney was the second member of the Alner family to die as a result of the Great War.
His older brother Harry, who had become a chauffeur and went to live in London, joined the Royal Army Service Corps in 1915. Private H Alner had served three years in France when he was killed on the front line just three weeks before his brother. He was 32 years old, and left a widow and two children.
When researching Sidney Alner in newspaper articles, an interesting report surfaced.
An unfortunate accident has happened to a little girl, not quite four years old, the daughter of Sidney Alner, who resides in Gold Hill. Heals’ steam hobby horses visited the town on Friday and Saturday in last week, and on the evening of the former day, Alner took his little girl for a ride on the horses.
Whilst they were in motion, the bolt that kept the horse on which Alner sat with his child attached to the connecting rod came out, and he and the little girl were precipitated to the ground.
Alner escaped without injury, but his daughter had one of her legs fractured above the knee. She was taken home, and Dr Evans set the injured limb. Later in the evening she was removed to the Westminster Cottage Hospital.
Salisbury and Winchester Journal: Saturday 31st October 1891
This Sidney Alner was Private Alner’s father, and the daughter would have been his older sister Sarah. Nothing more is reported of the incident, and Sarah went on to live until 1945, when she was 57 years old.
Harold Blake Hatcher was born on 11th February 1895, one of nine children to Robert Hatcher and his wife Ellen. Robert was a draper, and brought his family up in his home town of Taunton in Somerset. At least one of his children followed him into the cloth business, and, after he died in 1908, this seems to have fallen to Harold’s older brothers, Arthur and Ernest.
After leaving school, Harold became a dental student. Initially studying with Kendrick’s in his home town, he was about to begin training at Guy’s Hospital in London when war broke out.
Harold joined up in May 1915, and was initially assigned as a Lance Corporal to the 6th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, before being transferred to the Middlesex Regiment.
In November 1917, he was badly injured in while fighting at Bourlon Woods, as part of the Battle of Cambrai. It was while he was recuperating that he transferred again, this time to the fledgling Royal Air Force.
Second Lieutenant Hatcher gained his wings in June 1918, and soon became a flying instructor. It was while he was working at RAF Fairlop in North West London, that an incident occurred. A local newspaper picked up the story.
Many in Taunton have learnt with sincere regret of the accidental death whilst flying of Lieutenant Harold Blake Hatcher of the Royal Air Force, third son of the late Mr Robert Hatcher of Taunton, and of Mrs Hatcher, now of Bristol.
The accident in which he met his death on Monday was a triple fatality, two other airmen being killed at the same time, Second Lieutenant Laurie Bell, of Bournemouth, and Flight Sergeant AR Bean, of Burslem.
At the inquest… it was stated in evidence that while Lieutenant Hatcher and Sergeant Bean were flying at a height of about 500ft, Second Lieutenant Bell, who w flying a single-seater, dived from a position some 700 feet higher, his machine striking and cutting clean through the double-seater, which folded its wings, hovered a few second, and then crashed to the earth. The three men were instantaneously killed.
A verdict of Accidental Death was returned.
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 7th August 1918
Further witness testimony described how the Sopwith Camel, piloted by Bell, cutting the AVRO airplane it in two. Hatcher fell out of the wrecked two-seater as the Camel’s wings slowly folded into a V and fluttered free following the fuselage to the ground. All three airmen lost their lives. Bean was found in a sitting position, still strapped in the front half of the AVRO’s fuselage, his instructor’s body was found unmarked thirty yards away in the grass where it had fallen. The wingless Camel crashed close by and Bell was found to have almost every bone in his body broken.
The accident took place on 30th July 1918. Second Lieutenant Hatcher was just 23 years old.
Harold Blake Hatcher lies at rest in St Mary’s Cemetery in his home town of Taunton, Somerset.
Thomas Tannahill Cochran was born on 28th February 1899, in Gillingham, Kent. He was one of nine children to Woodrow Cochran and his wife, Janet, née Tannahill. Woodrow was an engine fitter and both he and Janet were from Paisley in Scotland; they moved to Kent not long after getting married, presumably as Woodrow found work in the Naval Dockyard in Chatham.
Thomas followed his father and older brothers into the Navy, initially enlisting as a Boy Shipwright on 12th August 1913. He served most of his time at the local dockyard, before setting out to sea in March 1918.
At this point, Shipwright Cochran’s service records need a bit of translation. Tragedy certainly occurred, but the details are a bit disparate.
According his naval service records, Shipwright Cochran was aboard HMS Pembroke II when he was killed in action off the Belgian coast on 23rd April 1918. However, HMS Pembroke II was actually a land-based vessel in Kent.
His gravestone, however suggested that he was assigned to another ship – HMS Vindictive. This was one of the vessels involved in the “Zeebrugge Raid”, an attempt by the Royal Navy to block the Belgian port by scuppering obsolete vessels in the canal entrance.
The Vindictive was to lead a diversion, drawing any attack away from the raid’s true target. However, bad weather blew the ship off course, which brought her within reach of enemy guns. Sadly, casualties were numerous, and Shipwright Cochran was one of those who fell in the German attack. He died on 23rd April 1918 at just 19 years old.
Thomas Tannahill Cochran’s body was recovered, and he lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.
Arthur Herring was born on 5th December 1877, the third of five children to William and Constance Herring. William was a sign writer at the Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, and the family lived in neighbouring Gillingham.
Arthur joined the Royal Navy in September 1899, just short of his 22nd birthday. He worked as an Engine Room Artificer (ERA), and over the twelve years of his initial service, he crewed on board ten different ships. This was in addition to his service at HMS Pembroke, the shore vessel in his home town of Chatham.
Arthur was evidently a hard worker, and he rose through the ranks from ERA 5th Class to ERA 1st Class during this time.
In September 1912, Arthur married Angela Beck; she was also born in Chatham, and was the daughter of a naval Sergeant. The couple didn’t go on to have any children.
War was looming by the time Arthur completed his twelve years’ service. Arthur was recommissioned, serving as Chief Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class on HMS Aquarius and HMS Tyne during the conflict.
In February 1917, Artificer Herring transferred to HMS Torrent. This was a naval destroyer, part of the Harwich Force, patrolling the North Sea.
One of the duties of the Harwich Force was manning the “Beef Run”; the convoys between England and the Netherlands. It was on one of these runs that tragedy struck HMS Torrent.
At about 2am on 23rd December, the convoy, including HMS Torrent, ran into a German minefield, and Torrent struck a German mine. Two of the other ships in the convoy, HMS Surprise and HMS Tornado went to rescue Torrent’s crew, but Torrent struck a second mine and quickly sank. In an attempt to rescue survivors, Surprise and Tornado also struck mines and sank.
Only the fourth convoy ship, HMS Radiant was undamaged and picked up the survivors from the three ships. In total, 12 officers and 240 other ranks were killed from the three ships. On HMS Torrent, only three of the crew survived; sixty-eight others perished that night. This included Artificer Herring, although his body was rescued from the water; he was 40 years old.
Arthur Herring lies at peace in the Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.
Arthur Henry Bloomfield was born on 19th December 1888, the youngest of six children. His parents, agricultural labourer and carter William and his wife Mary, raised the family in the small Norfolk village of East Harling, which was about halfway between the larger towns of Thetford and Diss.
Arthur married Rose Howlett in November 1911; the couple had two children – Margaret and Frederick – who became siblings for Rose’s daughter, Violet.
While Arthur’s military records are scarce, it is evident that he enlisted in the 9th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. Private Bloomfield’s troop fought at a number of the key skirmishes on the Western Front, including the devastating (for the battalion) Battle of Albert in 1916.
A year later, the 8th and 9th Battalions were caught up in the Battle of Messines and it was here that Private Bloomfield met his fate. His pension records show that he was killed in action on 7th June 1917. He was 28 years old.
Arthur Henry Bloomfield lies at rest in the Lone Tree Military Cemetery in Mesen, West Flanders, Belgium.
Interestingly, Arthur’s pension records only cite his beneficiaries as Rose, Margaret and Frederick. This may go further in confirming that Violet was not his daughter.
Arthur Henry Bloomfield was my great great uncle.
Photo courtesy of Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Death and Service 