Page 36 - ATKCM_30.04.15
P. 36
azine, were not well placed and proved difficult to open.
The failure to flood the magazine doomed the ship. She took
2 ½ hours to sink, which gave the crew time to take to the
boats.
Fifty men died, mainly from inhaling toxic fumes from the burning
cordite, and a further 80 were injured. In total 39 officers and
673 men were saved.
Arthur Brown was one of the lucky ones to survive.
He got back to Portsmouth on 22nd November 1918 and was
transferred to HMS Victory 1. This is the navy accounts section!
I suspect that it was in fact just a convenient address for people
who were about to be demobilised.
Arthur left the navy on 10th February 1919. He was now 21
years old.
Written with help from Barbara Smitheringale, granddaughter.
BURGE Frederick William Archibald
Private 72599 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London
Regiment)
Frederick was born in late 1888 in Truro, Cornwall, and was the
son of Frederick and Mary Ann Burge who had moved to Kings
Cliffe in the early 1900’s from Cornwall. They lived in Eagle
Tavern Lane, West Street, Kings Cliffe.
Frederick worked as a brewer’s clerk and his father as a
drayman. Most of his records have not survived the WW2
archive bombing but we do know that he enlisted in Bedford.
He was killed on 12th September 1918 in France, just two
months before the end of hostilities. At this point in the war the
British were on the final offensive, and it was no longer trench
warfare.
He is buried at the British extension, Bully-Grenay Communal
Cemetery, plot V1.B.16
By the time of his death his parents had moved to Sleaford. He
left £209 in his will.
He was awarded The Victory Medal but it was never collected
and a sad note on his card requests authorisation to dispose of it.
34
The failure to flood the magazine doomed the ship. She took
2 ½ hours to sink, which gave the crew time to take to the
boats.
Fifty men died, mainly from inhaling toxic fumes from the burning
cordite, and a further 80 were injured. In total 39 officers and
673 men were saved.
Arthur Brown was one of the lucky ones to survive.
He got back to Portsmouth on 22nd November 1918 and was
transferred to HMS Victory 1. This is the navy accounts section!
I suspect that it was in fact just a convenient address for people
who were about to be demobilised.
Arthur left the navy on 10th February 1919. He was now 21
years old.
Written with help from Barbara Smitheringale, granddaughter.
BURGE Frederick William Archibald
Private 72599 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London
Regiment)
Frederick was born in late 1888 in Truro, Cornwall, and was the
son of Frederick and Mary Ann Burge who had moved to Kings
Cliffe in the early 1900’s from Cornwall. They lived in Eagle
Tavern Lane, West Street, Kings Cliffe.
Frederick worked as a brewer’s clerk and his father as a
drayman. Most of his records have not survived the WW2
archive bombing but we do know that he enlisted in Bedford.
He was killed on 12th September 1918 in France, just two
months before the end of hostilities. At this point in the war the
British were on the final offensive, and it was no longer trench
warfare.
He is buried at the British extension, Bully-Grenay Communal
Cemetery, plot V1.B.16
By the time of his death his parents had moved to Sleaford. He
left £209 in his will.
He was awarded The Victory Medal but it was never collected
and a sad note on his card requests authorisation to dispose of it.
34
