I commented on another thread that, at this particular time, my late grandfather, Fred Wootton, has been in my thoughts. I know quite a lot about him, in particular that he drowned at sea on 22 September 1914 when his ship, HMS Cressy, was sunk by German U boat. He left a widow and four children.
I decided today to Google him to see if I could find anything more.
On that fateful morning three aged British cruisers, HMS Hogue, Aboukir and Cressy, were in formation in the north sea near the coast of Holland. Due to bad weather their escorting destroyers had returned to port. A patrolling German U boat quickly picked off and sunk the Hogue and the Aboukir. All available boats from the Cressy were launched to pick up survivors. In a small 17 foot whaler were James Rowden and Alfred Stroud, shipmates and townies of my grandad. They rowed back to Cressy with a boatload of survivors before returning to collect more. Whilst away this time Cressy was also torpedoed by the U boat, turned turtle, and sank.
Rowden and Stroud were picked up and returned home to Whitstable where, during an interview for a local newspaper, this comment was made and appeared in the edition of 3 October 1914.
“When the whaler had returned with her boat load, Wootton was the sailor who threw down a rope to Rowden, who states that he never saw him again”. This is very significant and most poignant as it places my grandfather in the thick of things doing his duty at a time of great stress & fear shortly before he too succumbed .
1459 lives were lost in that action and 837 were rescued and survived.
Lest we forget
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- Grandad
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Re: Lest we forget
Gave me shivers reading it Grandad. Your Grandfather was doing this duty knowing he probably would die yet faced it all. Dunno what I'd be like or do in similar circumstances. All were very brave men doing their best for their country and fellow countrymen. They really gave their all, themselves.
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Re: Lest we forget
I have just 2 family members who died in WWI or WWII. The closest relative to me was my grandfather James Frederick (Fred) Wootton. I have already mentioned earlier in this thread how I have just found mention of him by a shipmate shortly before my grandfather died.
By another coincidence I have found more about him and, not wishing to bang on about my grandad (of whom I am very proud), I thought this other link might interest you.
I already have a scanned copy of his Royal Navy Reserve record, he joined in 1904. Looking at it yesterday I noticed that his occupation is recorded as fishing on the Favourite. Here is a cropped extract from that record
Then bells rang in my head and I remembered seeing the Favourite at Whitstable a few years ago. A search of my pictures and I found this
So the actual boat that he fished for oysters in over 100 years ago still exists and I have touched where maybe my grandad also touched it. That makes me feel a connection with the grandad I never knew, he died 20 years before I was born......
By another coincidence I have found more about him and, not wishing to bang on about my grandad (of whom I am very proud), I thought this other link might interest you.
I already have a scanned copy of his Royal Navy Reserve record, he joined in 1904. Looking at it yesterday I noticed that his occupation is recorded as fishing on the Favourite. Here is a cropped extract from that record
Then bells rang in my head and I remembered seeing the Favourite at Whitstable a few years ago. A search of my pictures and I found this
So the actual boat that he fished for oysters in over 100 years ago still exists and I have touched where maybe my grandad also touched it. That makes me feel a connection with the grandad I never knew, he died 20 years before I was born......
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Re: Lest we forget
All very interesting Grandad. Knowing where & who we were from has always been quite interesting.
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