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Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, Ireland, Kent, London, Private, Royal Marines, story, war

Private Henry Teahen

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Private Henry Teahen

Henry Teahen (or Teahan) was born in around 1898 in Castlegregory, County Kerry, Ireland. One of twelve children – eight of whom survived infancy – his parents were John and Catherine Teahan.

John was a wayman (or road surveyor), who was born in Kerry. Catherine was born in Wandsworth and it was in London that the couple met and married. By the time Henry was born, the family had moved back to Ireland, although Catherine had made the journey back to England in the early 1900s, after John passed away.

The 1911 census found the family living in Forest Gate in the east of the capital; Henry’s oldest brother, Joseph, was head of the household and, at 24, was working as a police constable. Schoolboy Henry was there, as was his mother, two more of his brothers, one of his sisters and his niece and nephew.

War was imminent, though, and, within a week of hostilities breaking out, Henry – who had been working as a waiter – enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry. Private Teahen’s service records show that he was 5ft 8ins (1.72m) tall, had a fair complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. They also give his date of birth as 22nd June 1896, although he may have adapted this, as he would have been underage at the point he joined up.

Over the next few years, he served on a number of ships, switching between the Plymouth and Chatham divisions of the regiment. Full details of his duties are not immediately apparent, although is seems that he was injured while on board HMS Valiant in February 1916 – six months before her involvement in the Battle of Jutland – receiving a contusion to his right knee.

By the closing months of the war, Private Teahen had transferred back to the Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. It was while here, early in 1919, that he fell ill. Details of his condition are lost to time, but it is known that he succumbed to them, passing away on 1st March 1919; he was 21 years old when he died.

Henry Teahen was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, within walking distance of the dockyard at which he was based.

Henry’s older brother James, also fought in the First World War. Full details are not clear, but documents show that he enlisted in the 6th City of London Regiment (also known as the City of London Rifles).

James’ regiment fought in many of the fiercest battles on the Western Front, including Loos, Vimy, High Wood and Messines, but it was at Ypres in the late summer of 1917, that he was injured. He died of his wounds on 30th September, aged just 23 years old.

Private James Teahan was laid to rest at the Mendinghem Military Cemetery in Poperinghe, Belgium.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, killed in action, London, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war

Stoker 1st Class Henry Wate

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Stoker Henry Wate

Henry Wate was born on 15th June 1897, the youngest of seven children (four of whom survived) to Henry and Norah Wate. Henry Sr was from the East End of London. He raised his family in a three-room tenement in White Horse Alley, just off Cowcross Street, next to the busy Farringdon Station.

By the time of the 1911 census, Henry Sr and Norah had been married for thirty years. The head of the household, Henry was working as a rad dealer, while Norah was a housewife. Of their children, William (the eldest) worked as a labourer for a bike dealer, Annie was a packer in a chocolate factory, Nellie was a waitress and Henry Jr was still at school, though only just. Henry’s niece Julia was also staying with them, and was employed as a fancy leather worker.

When war broke out, Henry Jr was working as a carman, carting goods to and from the nearby railway. When the call came, however, he joined up, enlisting in the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class. After a couple of months training at HMS Pembroke – the shore establishment at the Naval Dockyard in Chatham – he was assigned to HMS Wallington. This was a trawler, requisitioned by the Royal Navy to act as a boom/balloon vessel, presumably to tether barrage balloons.

In January 1917, Henry received a promotion to Stoker 1st Class. He returned to Chatham six months later. That summer, HMS Pembroke was becoming crowded and he was billeted at the Chatham Drill Hall.

On 3rd September 1917, the building took a direct hit from a German bomber. Stoker Wate, along with 97 others, was killed instantly. He was just 20 years old.

Henry Wate was laid to rest – along with the others who perished that night – in a mass funeral on 6th September 1917 at the nearby Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham.

Full details of the night raid on Chatham Drill Hall can be found here.

Henry’s older brother William also served in the Great War. Twelve years older than his brother, William joined the Royal West Surrey Regiment in January 1915 as a Private. He was posted to France in July, and ended up serving on the Front Line for nearly four months.

In September 1915, Private Wate fell ill with heart palpitations. Shipped back to England for treatment, he was admitted to the Brook War Hospital in Greenwich, South London. The medical report confirmed that William had had rheumatic fever as a child, and had had an attack of ‘sycope’ (low blood pressure and a loss of consciousness) in 1911. The report concluded that he had heart disease and he was discharged from military service in 1916, as a result of this.

Little is known about Williams post-army life. All that can be confirmed is that he passed away from his heart condition on 23rd November 1918 aged 33. He was buried in St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in Kensal Green, North London.

Commonwealth War Graves, East Yorkshire Regiment, Egypt, Great War, history, illness, India, photography, Private, Somerset, story, Wales, war, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Joseph Dodge

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Private Joseph Dodge

Joseph Dodge was born in the summer of 1883, and was one of twelve children, including eleven boys. His parents were David and Eliza Dodge, who raised their growing family in Stoke-sub-Hamdon, a few miles to the east of Yeovil, Somerset.

David was a mason and stone sawyer, but his children went into other roles when they left school; Joseph found work as an agricultural labourer.

In October 1903, Joseph married Elizabeth Ann Case – better known as Annie – who came from just over the Dorset border in the village of Corscombe. Setting up home in Yeovil itself, the couple went on to have two children – both boys – Walter and Norman.

War was coming to Europe, and Joseph was intent on doing his bit. Full service details are not available, but the documents that exist confirm that he enlisted as a Private in the Wiltshire Regiment. Initially assigned to the 1/4th Battalion (which served in Egypt), he transferred to the 2/4th Battalion (which served in India).

Sadly, there is no documentation to give service dates, it is impossible to establish when or if Joseph actually served in these locations. India seems likely, however, as he later transferred to the 1st Garrison Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, which was based in Lucknow.

Private Dodge survived the war and came back to England, but seems to have contracted pneumonia on the journey home. Admitted to hospital in Liverpool, the condition sadly got the better of him. He passed away on 16th February 1919, at the age of 35 years old.

Joseph’s body was brought back to the county of his birth; he was laid to rest in Yeovil Cemetery.

Joseph came from a very patriotic family, and local newspapers early in the war highlighted that many of the Stoke-sub-Hamdon brothers had enlisted to serve King and Country.

At the time of the article, six had enlisted – Thomas, Arthur and Percy (all in the Somerset Light Infantry), Albert (West Somerset Yeomanry), Evan (Royal Navy) and David (Canadian Infantry).

Corporal David Dodge seems definitely to have distinguished himself. Having emigrated to Canada before the war, he returned to Europe when conflict broke out. An article in the Western Chronicle reported that he had “been awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery on the field under heavy fire.” [Western Chronicle: Friday 15th November 1918]

Amazingly, of the seven brothers who fought in the conflict, only Joseph perished.

An earlier series of articles tells the tragic story of another of Joseph’s siblings. Henry Dodge (known as William) had moved to Senghenydd, to the north of Cardiff, in 1910; mining work was plentiful there and he and a number of his fellow villagers had sought money from the black gold.

On the 14th October 1913, and explosion happened in the mine and together with the resulting fire and subsequent poisonous gas outpouring killed more than 430 miners. Initially reported missing, William was later confirmed dead; he was just twenty years old and left a widow and child.

Canada, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Royal Engineers, Sapper, Sergeant, Singapore, story, Sussex, war

Serjeant George Carpenter

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Serjeant George Carpenter

George Palmer Carpenter was born in Worthing, West Sussex, in 1881, one of fourteen children to James and Elizabeth Carpenter. James ran the Steyne Hotel on the seafront, and sent his boys off to the Lucton Boarding School in Henfield for their education.

A regimented life seems to have suited George. When he left school, he enlisted in army, joining the Royal Engineers as a Sapper. The 1901 census found him billeted at the Elphinstone Barracks in Portsmouth.

Sadly, there is little further documentation on the life of Sapper Carpenter. He served through to and during the Great War, attaining the rank of Serjeant. He was sent to France in May 1915, though there is little to confirm his role there, or how long he stayed.

Serjeant Carpenter was subsequently attached to G Depot Company of the Royal Engineers, which received men returned from Expeditionary Force and also men enlisted for Tunnelling Companies, Special Companies and other specialist units. By this time – presumably later on in the conflict – he was based back in England, at the regiment’s barracks in Chatham, Kent.

When the war came to a close, George continued with his army career. With conflict in Europe coming end, he was shipped to Singapore in 1917, where he served through to 1920. A Sussex newspaper picked up his story from there:

Much sympathy will be extended to Mrs Carpenter and her family, of the Steyne Hotel, consequent upon the death of Sergeant George Carpenter, of the Royal Engineers, another of our Worthing boys whose life has been laid down in his country’s service. He arrived home in a bad state of health on the 25th of February last from Singapore, where he had been on duty for three years. Suffering from gastric influenza, it was found necessary that he should undergo an operation, which was carried out at midnight on Saturday. But he sank from weakness, and died at half-past eight on Sunday morning. This is the second son of whom Mrs Carpenter has been bereaved within a year, and there is pathos in the words addressed to us by her: “I have again the sorrowful task of sending the news of the death of one of my sons this morning.

Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 24th March 1920

George Palmer Carpenter was 39 years old. He was laid to rest in the Broadwater Cemetery of his home town, Worthing, in West Sussex.

The other brother referred to in the report was George’s younger brother Norman.

He had emigrated to Canada in 1906, but returned to Europe as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force when war broke out. Wounded in battle in May 1917, he returned to the UK for treatment and recuperation, and remained on home soil for the rest of the war.

In the spring of 1919, he was admitted to hospital with pleurisy and anaemia, and seems that he never fully recovered, succumbing to the conditions in August of that year. He was just 32 years old.

Commonwealth War Graves, Driver, Great War, history, illness, Ireland, Labour Corps, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, Royal West Kent Regiment, story, Sussex, war

Private Henry Greenfield

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Private Henry Greenfield

Henry Gordon Greenfield was born in Worthing, West Sussex, in 1890. The fourth of nine children, his parents were Edmund and Caroline. Edmund was a carter from the town, who raised his family in a small terraced house near the station.

By the early 1900s, Edmund had changed profession, becoming a plasterer, and this was employment that his son followed him into. This seems to have been more lucrative for the family, and they moved to a larger property to the north of the town.

In August 1911, Henry married Edith Tombs. Edith was a gardener’s daughter from London, who had moved to Worthing for work. When the couple married, she was employed as a domestic servant for a solicitor and his wife. The young couple would go on to have three sons.

When war broke out, Henry was quick to enlist. He initially joined the Royal Sussex Regiment, serving his time as part of the 10th Battalion. This was a reserve company, that was based on home soil. When hostilities came to an end, Henry was transferred to the Labour Corps, and was billeted in Belfast.

Little further information about Henry’s service can be confirmed; he was admitted to the Military Hospital in Belfast with pneumonia, but sadly died of the condition on 27th February 1919. He was just 28 years old.

Brought back to Worthing, Henry Gordon Greenfield lies at rest in the Broadwater Cemetery there, not far from his parents and widow.

Henry’s younger brother Frederick also served during the Great War. Joining the Royal West Kent Regiment as a horse driver, he fought on the Western Front. He was killed on 17th August 1917, and is buried at the Duisans Cemetery in northern France. He was just 21 years of age.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, photography, Private, Royal West Kent Regiment, story, Sussex, unknown, war

Private Sidney Ford

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Private Sidney Ford

Sidney Ford was born in Kent in 1896, the son of Stephen John Ford and his second wife, Elizabeth Ann (née Underdown). The couple had four children – Frederick, Sidney, Ethel and Alice – although it seems that Elizabeth brought them up almost singlehandedly. Sidney’s military records gives his father’s name, although simply notes that he was an imbecile, in the stark way that only Edwardian officials could.

Sadly, little of Sidney’s early life remains documented. By the time war broke out, he was working as a farm labourer in Yalding, close to where he was born. He enlisted at the end of October 1914, joining the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), and was assigned to the 8th (Service) Battalion as a Private.

Joining up in Maidstone, by the end of the year, Private Ford’s battalion was soon billeted in Worthing, West Sussex. Tragically, his service was destined to be a short one, and he passed away after only a month in the town.

The first death from the Red Cross Hospital, Cecil’s, at West Worthing, had to be recorded. Since it has been opened there have been a large number of cases, and many of them have been of a serious nature, but happily all except the one under notice have made progress, thanks to the skill of the Medical Officers and Nursing Staff of the institution.

The deceased in this instance was a Private of the Eighth Battalion of the West Kent Regiment, now stationed locally. His name was Sidney Ford, and he was twenty-five years of age. He died on Friday, and at the funeral, which took place on Monday, full Military honours were accorded him.

Colonel Vansittart (who commands the Eighth Battalion) and Major Bock-Hollinshead attended, as also did other members of the Staff of the Hospital. A large number of the public were also at the Cemetery to witness the last rites, the progress of so long and so imposing a procession through the streets attracting considerable attention.

Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 20th January 1915

Private Ford has died on 15th January 1915, and was actually just 20 years of age, not 25, as had been reported. The Worthing Gazette does not give no mention to Sidney’s family, so it can only be assumed that they were unable to make the journey from Kent to the funeral. I have been unable to uncover details of the cause of his death, but, given that there is no mention of the cause in the newspaper, it is likely to have been following an illness than anything more sensational or unusual.

Sidney Ford lies at rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing, one of the first in the town to have passed because of the Great War.

Sidney’s older brother, Frederick, was also involved in the Great War. While there is little specific information about his service, it is evident that he was a Private in the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment).

Unlike his younger brother, Frederick did see military action, but list his life on the Western Front on 4th November 1915, ten months after Sidney had passed in Worthing.

Frederick lies at rest in the Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard in Laventie, in Northern France.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Great War, Hampshire Regiment, history, illness, injury, killed in action, London, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, story, war

Private Sidney Alner

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Private Sidney Alner

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.

accident, Commonwealth War Graves, Cornwall, Great War, history, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, Surrey, unknown, war

Private William Flower

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Private William Flower

William Alister Flower was born in 1887, one of five children to Joseph and Annie Flower. Joseph was a platelayer for the local railway, and brought the family up in Weston-super-Mare, in his home county of Somerset.

When he left school, William worked as an errand boy for a local greengrocer; he stuck with it, and, by the time of the 1911 census, he was employed as a van driver for the grocer.

War was on the horizon and, while William enlisted in the army, it is difficult to get a complete handle on his military service. There are a number of servicemen with similar names, but the documentation that is available is not easy to directly connect them with the gravestone in the Weston-super-Mare cemetery.

What is clear is that William enlisted as a Private in the Army Service Corps at some point before May 1918. He was assigned to the Motor Transport division (this was likely on the back of his van-driving experience). His time seems to have been spent on home soil, although he was awarded both the Victory and British Medals for his service.

At some point, he had married a woman called Mabel. Exact details again are unclear – ancestry.com confirms the marriage of a William Flower and Mabel Richardson in December 1909, but as this took place in Northamptonshire, it is unlikely to be the Somerset Flowers researched here.

Details of Private Flower’s passing are also scarce. He died on 8th November 1918, in the Military Hospital in Croydon, Surrey, but the is no information as to the cause of his death. He was just 31 years old.

William Alister Flower’s body was brought back to Somerset; he lies at rest in the family grave, in the Milton Cemetery of his home town.

While I was researching William Flower, I was taken by the note of the accidental death of the first name on the family grave.

Edward Thomas Flower was two years William’s senior who, after leaving school, had gone on to be an errand boy for a local butcher.

Edward had decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the railways, leaving his home town in 1905 to work in Cornwall. After initially working as an engine cleaner, he progressed to be a fireman, helping to stoke the engine with coal. The local newspaper of the time picked up the story of the accident.

At the moment of the accident, a goods train was standing in the Redruth station, shunting having been temporarily suspended to admit the passage of the down motor rail car.

It appears that the flap of one of the cattle trucks in the goods train… had been allowed to remain down, and the folding doors above it had been insecurely fastened, with the result that as the motor rail car ran into the station the doors of the truck suddenly flew open outward and one of them struck deceased on the side of the face and head, inflicting terrible injuries.

There was a very extensive fracture of the skull, the whole of the left side of the face was driven in and there was also a formidable wound at the back of the head, death occurring within a few moments.

It appears that the rail motor was not proceeding at a greater rate than some five or six miles an hour, according to the statement made at the inquest by the driver, and the latter noticed that when the doors of the goods truck swung open they struck one of the handles on the fore part of the car. He applied the brake immediately, but did not know that Flower had been struck until afterwards.

Weston Mercury: Saturday 7th October 1905

The inquest found that there had been some neglect on the part of the porter and guard in not ensuring that the goods truck’s doors had been secured, and it seems that this was something that had been highlighted previously.

Edward had shortly been due to marry, leaving a fiancée, as well as a family, bereft. He was just 20 years old.

His body was brought back to Weston-super-Mare, and was the first to be buried in the family grave.

Commonwealth War Graves, Driver, Great War, Gunner, history, injury, photography, Royal Field Artillery, Royal Horse Artillery, Somerset, story, war, Wiltshire

Gunner Walter Coleman

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Gunner Walter Coleman

Walter Coleman was born in the spring of 1887, one of seven children to James and Emily Coleman. James was a hairdresser and the family lives in the Somerset town of Taunton.

Walter didn’t follow his father’s trade; instead, after a spell working at a collar factory when he left school, he was soon employed as a groom.

On Christmas Day 1910, he married Kate Norris, and the couple set up in a two-up, two-down in the middle of the town.

War was on the horizon, however, and when it broke out, Walter signed up straight away. He joined the 72nd Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery as a Driver and trained at the Bulford Camp on Salisbury Plain. It was while he was here on 10th April 1915 that he had an accident and fell off his horse. Sadly, Driver Coleman fractured his skull and died of his injuries that day. He was just 28 years old.

Walter Coleman lies at rest in the St James’ Cemetery in his home town of Taunton.

Walter Coleman (from findagrave.com)

Walter’s older brother Henry James Coleman also served in the Great War. Posted to France as part of the Labour Corps, he died of wounds on 12th April 1918. He was 33 years old, and left behind a widow and four children. He is buried at the Longuenesse Souvenir Cemetery in France.

Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, India, injury, Lance Corporal, London, photography, Private, Somerset, story, Surrey, Sussex, unknown, war

Lance Corporal Ernest Hawkins

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Lance Corporal Ernest Hawkins

Ernest Frederick Hawkins was born in Street, Somerset, in 1884. He was the youngest of six children to Charles Hawkins and his wife Elizabeth. Both of Ernest’s parents were shoemakers in the Clark’s Factory in the town, and this was the trade Elizabeth continued in after her husband’s death in 1887.

Ernest’s life has some mysteries about it and there is a sense that he spent time trying to escape from something. In August 1904, he enlisted in the army, joining the Scottish Rifles (also known as the Cameronians). He did this under an assumed name, preferring to be called James Fisher.

“James” gave his next of kin as his parents, listing them as George and Annie in South Acton (even though these were not his actual parents’ names, and that his father had passed away 17 years previously).

His enlistment papers give an interesting insight into the young man. He was listed as 22 years old, 5ft 4ins (1.62m) tall, with brown eyes, black hair and a sallow complexion. His arms were adorned with a number of tattoos, including Buffalo Bill on his upper right arm and a ship surrounded by flags on his upper left.

Private Fisher served for a year on home soil, before being shipped out to India. He returned to the UK in October 1907, and transferred to the Army Reserve.

Ernest returned to Somerset, and it was here that he met Sarah Jane Manning. The couple married in a registry office in Bristol, and went on to have two children, Hubert and Iris.

War broke out, and Private Fisher was remobilised. By August 1914 he was promoted to Lance Corporal, and sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Here he became caught up in a number of the key battles of the conflict.

On 24th July 1916, during the British attacks on High Wood at the Somme, he was wounded in the right arm, and invalided back to England for treatment. Admitted to the War Hospital in Guildford, Surrey, it was confirmed that he had received a gun-shot wound to his right arm, which had resulted in a compound fracture of the humerus, radius and ulna. Sadly for Ernest, the only option was a full amputation of his right arm.

After some time to recover, Ernest was transferred to the Pavilion Military Hospital in Brighton where he was fitted for an artificial limb. He spent three months in the Brighton facility, before being moved to the Queen Mary’s Convalescent Home in Roehampton to recuperate. He was eventually discharged – from the hospital and the army – on 10th March 1917, and returned to his wife and family in Somerset.

There is little further documented information about Ernest. He and Sarah went on to have a further child – Leslie – in 1917. Sadly, where Ernest had been a toddler when his father had died, Leslie was consigned to be a babe-in-arms when Ernest passed away.

Ernest Frederick Hawkins – also known as James Fisher – died in Swindon on 2nd July 1918, at the age of 34. He lies at rest in St Mary’s Cemetery in his adopted home town of Taunton, Somerset.

Ernest’s gravestone also commemorates his brother Frank Hawkins. Frank was nine years older than Ernest, and, like his younger brother, had decided that the military life was for him.

Frank enlisted in the Royal Navy in November 1894 and was assigned a Boy 2nd Class on HMS Impregnable – the training ship based in Chatham, Kent. Over the period of his twelve years’ service, Frank rose through the ranks to Able Seaman. When his term was up, he joined the Royal Fleet Reserve for a further five years.

When war came, Able Seaman Hawkins was immediately called back into action. He was assigned to HMS Goliath, serving off German East Africa and the Dardanelles. On the night of the 12th May 1915, the ship was guarding the water off Gallipoli, when it was struck by three Ottoman torpedoes. The resulting explosions caused the ship to sink quickly, and 570 souls – out of a total complement of 750 crew – were lost.

Able Seaman Hawkins was one of those lost, and was subsequently commemorated on his brother’s gravestone.