William Cox – H.M.S Good Hope, The War Memorial, The Church Yard, St. John the Baptist’s Church, Bere Regis, 10/07/15.

Tags

Admiral Maxmillian Von Spee, Battle of Coronel, Battle of the Falkland Islands, Bere Regis, Dorset, First World War, HMS Good Hope, memorial, Military History, Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock RN, Royal Navy, St John the Baptist's Church Bere Regis, William Cox, World War One

William Cox – H.M.S Good Hope.

Every name on a memorial has a story behind behind it, but some names stand out more than others and different names stand out for different people. The name William Cox stands out for me in this Roll of Honour because he clearly served in the Royal Navy, were as those listed above him served in British Army units more familiar to me. I knew nothing about the H.M.S Good Hope; was William Cox lost at sea?

Ship’s Cook William Cox (347466), along side 919 officers and men, of the Drake Class armoured cruiser H.M.S Good Hope, including Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock, who was using the Good Hope as his flag ship, and four Midshipman of the newly formed Royal Canadian Navy, were killed in action at the Battle of Coronel.

Rear Admiral Cradock’s British Fouth Cruiser Squadron engaged the superior forces of Admiral Maximillian Von Spee’s German East Asiatic Squadron on the 1st November 1914, off the Chilean coast. By the end of the battle H.M.S Good Hope and H.M.S Monmouth had been sunk with the loss of all hands.

Although I could not find any further biographical information about Ship’s Cook William Cox, detailed biographies of Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock are available and he strikes me as a very interesting character. In 1904 he received a testimonial from the Royal Humane Society for jumping over board into Palmas Bay, at night, to save the life of a drowning Midshipman. In 1911 he received The Board of Trade Medal for Saving Life at Sea for his part in the rescuing of passengers from the SS. Delhi, which ran aground off Cape Spartel.

Admiral Maximillian Von Spee’s Squadron attempted to raid the Falkland Island on the 8th December 1914 and was surprised by a superior force of British warships, reinforced following the Battle of Coronel. Six German warships were lost following the Battle of the Falkland Island, including Admiral Von Spee’s flagship, which capsized with the loss of all hands, including the Admiral himself.

It is amazing what you can learning from researching only one name on a memorial…

Sources.

The Coronel Memorial http://www.coronel.org.uk/description.php 

The Roll of Honour: A Biographical Record of all Member of His Majesty’s Naval and Military Forces who have fallen in the War, Volume I, page 96. Available on-line at https://archive.org/details/rollofhonourbiog01ruvi 

Parachute Regimental Association Wreath, Entrance to The Airborne Memorial Garden, Castle Hill, Lincoln, 26/6/15.

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Airborne Memorial Garden Lincoln, British Army, Castle Hill Lincoln, door, Lincoln, memorial, Parachute Regiment, Parachute Regimental Association, Poppies, Royal British Legion, wood, wreath

Photo Archive: “Proclaim The Year of The Lord’s Favour”, St. Peter’s Community Mosaic, Incorporating a Tribute to Sir Stanley Matthews CBE, Stoke Minster, Stoke-on-Trent, c.2007.

Tags

bench, ceramics, football., footballer, memorial, mosaics, Quotes, Sir Stanley Matthews CBE, Sporting History, St Peter's Community Mosaic Stoke, Stoke, Stoke Minster, Stoke-on-Trent

Photo Archive: Merchant Seafarer’s War Memorial, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, 20/08/14.

Tags

Brian Fell, Cardiff, Cardiff Bay, face, memorial, Merchant Navy, Merchant Seafarer's War Memorial Cardiff Bay, prow, public art, sculpture

Viewed from the landward side.

Lost at sea memorials.com informs me that this breathtaking sculpture is by Brian Fell and that it is dedicated to the “MEMORY OF THE MERCHANT SEAFARERS FROM THE PORTS OF BARRY PENARTH CARDIFF WHO DIED IN TIMES OF WAR”. On this particular occasion I approached the memorial from the landward side, having visited the Pierhead Building, and was struck by the beauty of the face at rest, which merges into the distinctive prow of a ship. If you walk around to what you might call the Bay side of the sculpture, the features of the face are completely erased and you are confronted with something that could be the hull of a vessel that ran aground in front of the National Assembly of Wales/Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru building yesterday.

From the Bay side.

Photo Archive: Photograph of Second Radio Officer Norman Eric Blyth, Tower Hill Memorial, London, 2014.

Tags

Arctic Convey PQ13, London, memorial, Merchant Navy, Norman Eric Blyth, plaques, SS Induna, staues, Steam Trawler Imperial Queen, Tower Hill, Tower Hill Memorial London, U Boat, U376

I always find it moving to see any sign that there is still a connection between the living and those who sacrificed their lives and are commemorated on memorials, like this memorial to merchant seaman at Tower Hill in London. Second Radio Officer Norman Eric Blyth of the Merchant Navy, whose photograph somebody has thoughtfully affixed to the memorial plaque that bears his name, died on the 30th March 1942 when the SS. Induna, part of Arctic Convey PQ13, on route to Northern Russian, was torpedoed by the U376 and sunk. In the list of the crew lost you will also find Norman Blyth’s colleagues, First Radio Officer Arthur Carpenter of Swanmore, Hampshire and Third Radio Officer Samuel Ezekiel McClure of Cloughmills, County Antrim.

The U376 was lost with all hands in the Bay of Biscay on the 13th April 1943.

On the subject of connections between the living and those members of the Mercantile Marine who made the ultimate sacrifice, my own surname appears on the Tower Hill Memorial amongst the crew of the Steam Trawler Imperial Queen (GY502), which was lost on the 28th July 1920; the victim of a sea mine drifting across the North Sea.

To quote from the memorial itself, “The Twenty Four Thousand of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets whose names are honoured on the walls of this garden gave their lives for their country and have no grave but the sea.“

Photo Archive: Day Dreaming, Battle of Britain Memorial, Victoria Embankment, London, c.2010.

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Battle of Britain, Battle of Britain Memorial, Bronze, day dreaming, London, memorial, public art, rain drops, sculpture, Second World War, Trains., Victoria Embankment, Weather

Pulman Street and Evans Square Roll of Honour, Streetlife Museum of Transport, Hull, 29/11/14.

Tags

British Army, Coldstream Guards, East Yorkshire Regiment, Hull, Hull City of Culture 2017, memorial, Military History, Military Medal, Museums, Northumberland Fusiliers, Pulman Street Hull, Roll of Honour, Street Shrine, Streetlife Museum of Transport, Streetlife Museum of Transport Hull, World War One

This is one of three memorials now displayed at the Streetlife Museum of Transport. The two other Rolls of Honour or Street Shrines are rather large, Gothic, dark, wooden affairs, so this one stands out considerably in comparison, with its names clearly displayed in black and white. I became curious to know if I could find out anything about these men and their service in World War One, so I took this photograph on Saturday morning and I have spent my Sunday evening researching; largely with the aid of www.ww1hull.org.uk. 

Sergeant Albert Arksey MM and Bar (33399) gave his address as 23 Pulman Street when he joined the 11th (Service) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment on the 1st November 1917. By the 28th June 1918 he had won his Military Medal and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. On the 6th September 1918 he was killed by a German sniper after only 10 months service. Arksey also appears on a list of railway employees, published by the National Railway Museum, who lost their lives in World War One, so we know that he worked as porter with the North Eastern Railway and that his death was reported in the North Eastern Railway Staff Magazine for November 1918 (page 208).

Corporal Gilbert Lupton (10453) served with the 4th Battalion of the Coldstream Guards and died on the 20th January 1918.

George Alfred Harman (7753) joined the 8th (Service) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, one of the eight Kitchenner battalions raised in the August of 1914, and George William Yarrow joined the 11th (Service) Battalion known as the “Hull Tradesmen“.

Three of the men joined the Northumberland Fusiliers. George Holmes Ellis (5498) served in the 19th (Service) Battalion, the 2nd Tyneside Pioneers, raised in Newcastle on the 6th November 1914. George Borman (3881) and Harry Wright (242265) both served in the 4th Battalion, which was a Territorial unit originally based in Hexham. Harry Wright’s brother, Lance Corporal John Henry Wright (21725), died serving with the 7th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment.

The other names seem to have been lost to history, apart from C Smith, whose initial and surname are so common that my research discovered 607 possible Smiths.

Photo Archive: Keighley War Memorial, Keighley, 01/10/05.

Tags

British Army, Bronze, Keighley, memorial, Military History, sculpture, soldier, World War One

“In proud and grateful memory of those men of Keighley who gave their lives in the Great War and the World War in the defence of freedom and justice

Their name liveth for evermore“.

Photo Archive: Wreath, The Guards Memorial, Horseguards Parade, London, 21/11/10.

Tags

British Army, Coldstream, Coldstream Guards, Horseguards Parade, London, memorial, Military History, Poppies, Poppy Day, Remembrance Sunday, The Guards Memorial, World War One

“Honi soit qui mal y pense” (Shame on him who thinks evil of it).

This memorial wreath takes the form of The Star of The Order of The Garter, with poppies forming the Cross of St. George at its centre. The Star, as well as being the heraldic symbol of Britain’s highest order of chivalry, is the regimental insignia of the Coldstream Guards. The losses of all five Regiments of Foot Guards are commemorated as part of The Guards Memorial, alongside those of the units that made up the The Guards Division, who lost their lives in World War One and “in the Service of their Country since 1918″. The memorial faces Horseguards Parade, the large parade ground in Whitehall, where The Guards troop their colours to mark The Monarch’s official birthday every year.

My maternal grandfather was from Coldstream, the ancestral home of the Coldstream Guards, so I have always had a bias towards the Regiment (and that’s why you’re not looking at a wreath shaped like the cap badge of The Grenadier Guards). I’ve written about the Coldstream Guards memorial in Henderson Park in Coldstream before [Photo Archive: Henderson Park, Coldstream, April 2012] and this insignia has appeared in more unexpected places on my travels [Coldstream Guards Hassock, St. Mary’s Church, Beverley, 14/05/14].

Poppies, The Cenotaph, Paragon Square, Hull. 10/11/14.

Tags

crochet, Hull, Hull City of Culture 2017, memorial, Poppies, Poppy Day, Remembrance Sunday