Tynemouth WW1 Commemoration Project

Letter of comfort tells of Jutland disaster

The flow of information to the Tynemouth project continues, with items of interest brought in by relatives of casualties of a conflict 100 years ago. One item produced at the Project workroom recently is a remarkable document which may turn out to be of great significance.

A letter sent to the family of every victim of the loss of HMS Invincible in the crucial naval action at Jutland on 31^st May- 1^st June, 1916, was intended to comfort the more than 1000 families who lost a member in that great engagement which was marked by greater losses in our navy than were inflicted upon the enemy.

HMS Invincible, one of the most powerful ships in the Royal Navy of the time suffered instantaneous destruction when a shell penetrated her armour and set off a fatal explosion in the magazine containing the high explosive charges used to fire her own massive array of guns.

All but 6 of her more than 1000 crew were lost, including Admiral Horace Hood. Some days later a Captain Dannreuther visited Lady Hood and told her of the loss of the ship and his own remarkable escape along with only 5 other men. Thrown from high in one of Invincible’s masts by the fearsome explosion which sent the ship to the bottom in only 10 seconds, Dannreuther’s story was related in a letter sent by Admiral Hood’s widow to the family of every victim; each letter being individually addressed and signed by her. In it she said ‘-and I only hope that this short account will help you as it has helped me’.

15 men on the Tynemouth Roll of Honour were lost at the Jutland battle including

Albert Hold . Only 17 years old, from Eston in the North Riding of Yorkshire, he had been sent to the Training Ship Wellesley moored off North Shields Fish Quay in 1911 aged only 11. He entered the Navy at just 15 in March 1915. The navy did not have restrictions on service at sea in active operations so this young man was one of the victims of the loss of the Invincible after only 13 months as a sailor. His period of forced separation from his family from the age of 11, because he was’ non-compliant’, and short naval career brought a sudden end to what had clearly been a difficult childhood.

We can only wonder what comfort the letter from Lady Hood brought to his mother Martha Hold, a widow in the 1911 census and living at Peel Street in South Bank in1916 at the time of his death - four weeks short of Albert’s 17^th birthday.

Although the letter brought to us relates to William Davey of Byker Bank in Newcastle, we hope to have it available for display at the project exhibition planned for 2014, in the meantime we have alerted the Royal Navy Museum to its existence and are keen to learn whether this is yet one more remarkable and perhaps unique find brought to light by the project’s work.

Alan Fidler