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2nd Clarinet · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 12:05 pm Post subject: In Memory - HMS Queen Mary

3 of 4 on this day, 1916

31st May 1916.

On the 31st May 1916, the following members of the Royal Marines Band Service gave their lives while serving onboard HMS Queen Mary.

Bandmaster: J.A. Taylor
Band Corporals: A.O. Wood and T.H. Smith
Musicians: W. Dykes, G. Orme, M. Wood, P.G.G. Buchanan, J.S. Owens, F.W. Wood, R. Gibson, J.W.G. Steadman, H. Richardson, R.B. Thompson, W.P. Wilmot and F. Overton.

I have posted below, the circumstances of that day.

HMS Queen Mary was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy.

She was similar to the Lion class, though she differed in details from her half-sisters.

Upon commissioning, she joined the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron.

On 28 August 1914, she took part in the 1st Battle of Heligoland Bight.

She was under refit at the time of the Dogger Bank battle, so she did not take part in that engagement.

After completing her refit, she re-joined the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron and was sunk in the Battle of Jutland.

Her wreck was discovered in 1991 and rests partly upside-down, on sand, 60 metres down.
Much equipment is scattered about the wreck.
Queen Mary is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.

She should not be confused with the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary, though both were named after Mary of Teck.

She was under the command of Captain Cecil I. Prowse at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916.

Due to her more modern rangefinders, her gunnery was more accurate than the rest of the Royal Navy battlecruisers, and she was firing full broadsides.

She had fired about 150 13.5 in shells, putting one of Derfflinger's turrets out of commission, then she switched fire and focused 4 hits on the SMS Seydlitz.

The mighty Seydlitz hit back, first striking Queen Mary above the right gun on 'Q' turret; this gun was out of action, but the left gun kept firing.

Shortly after, more 30.5 cm (12 inch) shells hit her forward near 'A' and 'B' turrets, and another hit 'Q' turret.

The forward magazine exploded, the ship listed to port, and more explosions followed as the ship was sinking.

The battlecruiser behind her, HMS Tiger, was showered with hot debris from the explosion.

All but twenty-one of her 1,266 crew were lost (two of the survivors were picked up by German ships).

The survivors were:
Peregrine Robert Dearden (POW) (Picked up by German destroyer G8)
Alfred Thomas Sherwood (POW) (Picked up by German destroyer G8)
Ernest Benjamin Francis (Picked up by HMS Petard)
Albert Matthew Williets (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Marshall William Taylor (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Frank Smith (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Albert Ralph (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Frederick William Meads (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
George William Manners (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
John Hutchinson (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Herbert Ernest Hughes (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Stanley Foster Ford (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Albert Henry Brand (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Arthur Bower Clark (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Albert Edwards (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Thomas Charles May (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
John H. Lloyd Owen (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Jocelyn L. Storey (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Voltelin St. J. Van Der Byl (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Humphrey M.L. Durrant (Picked up by HMS Laurel)
Air Mechanic Wilson

Account of Gunners mate Francis
A short account of the battle was written by Petty Officer (Gunners mate) E. Francis, who was 'captain of X turret', reporting to a gunnery Lieutenant.

At 3.30 pm he had been off duty asleep and was now preparing for duty, when the first hint of an action came by bugle call.
The men rushed to their station in X turret.
The equipment was tested before shortly the order was received to load cages with ammunition ready for action, followed by the order to load the guns.
Firing commenced using only the right gun using director firing, where aiming information was passed directly to the turret from a central control point.
Although Francis had optical sights for aiming the guns directly, under director firing no one had time to use these and observe the effects of their firing, or what they were shooting at.
From time to time, Francis would look out while the guns reloaded.
At one point the guns jammed against the loading rams because the breech had been opened before the guns had finished moving after recoiling from firing.
The viewing periscope from the turret became blocked and a man went to clear it, only to be struck by something and then to fall from the turret. The ship had by now been struck a heavy blow somewhere aft.
A report was received from the transmitting station that their target, the third German ship, had dropped out of line, and Francis, checking, observed that it was sinking at the bow (Seydlitz, although sinking slowly in fact made it back to Germany).
Although not told, he judged from the training of the gun that their target had shifted to the fourth German ship.
Some shots were fired, and looking through the periscope again, Francis noted flames coming from the now third ship which was some distance behind the first two.
There then followed a big explosion, shortly followed by a greater one which shook the men from their positions on the guns.
Two men from the left gun were crushed by their gun, which fell from its trunnions on top of them.
Francis and some others were left hanging in the air from ropes, which had been fitted at his orders and which saved all those wearing them.
The turret floor was bulged up and the guns inoperable.

The ship was silent.

On instructions from the Lieutenant, Francis stuck his head out through a hole in the turret roof and saw that the rear four inch battery had been destroyed, and the ship was listing heavily to port.
The order was given to clear the turret.
The last man out from the working chamber immediately below the turret reported that the trunk down to the magazine was already filling with water.
Climbing down the ladder on the back of the turret, it was now impossible to stand on the deck because of the list of the ship.
Two of the gunners helped him out, one at the ships starboard side holding the body of the second, so that Francis could grab the second man's legs and haul himself up to the starboard side of the ship.
The men were uncertain what to do, but Francis determined to swim away from the ship immediately.
When about 50 yards away there was another explosion which sent debris flying through the air.
Francis dived, then on resurfacing found himself dragged down again by the wash from the ship sinking (at approximately 4.26 pm).
Eventually he resurfaced and found a piece of the ships wooden gunnery target which he could climb upon.
He was shortly afterwards picked up by HMS Petard, although he had difficulty seeing because of fuel oil in his eyes.
While being treated onboard Petard and unable to see, a shell came through the ship killing the doctor and eight others but leaving Francis untouched.
He was eventually returned to hospital in Rosyth where he remained for a few days until his eyes recovered enough for him to see.

Account of Seydlitz's captain

Moritz von Egidy, captain of the Seydlitz, wrote:
Soon the British light cruisers came in view, and behind them dense clouds of smoke.
Then tripod masts and huge hulls loomed over the horizon.
There they were again, our friends from Dogger Bank.
At 1545 hours we opened fire.
After a short time, HMS Indefatigable exploded, followed 20 minutes later by HMS Queen Mary, our target as Tactical Number Three.
The spectacle was overwhelming, there was a moment of complete silence, then the calm voice of a gunnery observer announced "Queen Mary blowing up", at once followed by the order "Shift target to the right" given by the gunnery officer in the same matter-of-fact tone as at normal gunnery practice.

To those named above and the ships company who also died…..R.I.P.
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