Stalbridge Remembers
TOM BROWN
Stoker 1st Class 299647
Died in HMS Bulwark on Thursday 26th November 1914
Aged 34
His memorial is on Panel 4
THE PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, HAMPSHIRE.
Son of William and Eliza Brown, Ring Street, Stalbridge.
Personal details:
Born in 1880 and baptised in St Mary's Church on 3rd October 1880. He had three sisters Mary, Beatrice and Fanny, and two brothers, Percy and William, all younger than him. A sister Ann, a year older than him, died before she was 10. His father was a shoemaker and his mother a glover. The family moved from Back Lane (now Grove Lane) to Ring Street between 1891 and 1901. There they lived in one of seven cottages just North of the Pound, which could now be either Camfrey Cottage or Fernley. Tom joined the Navy on 2nd January 1902.
Born in 1880 and baptised in St Mary's Church on 3rd October 1880. He had three sisters Mary, Beatrice and Fanny, and two brothers, Percy and William, all younger than him. A sister Ann, a year older than him, died before she was 10. His father was a shoemaker and his mother a glover. The family moved from Back Lane (now Grove Lane) to Ring Street between 1891 and 1901. There they lived in one of seven cottages just North of the Pound, which could now be either Camfrey Cottage or Fernley. Tom joined the Navy on 2nd January 1902.
Military details:
Tom joined the Navy at the same time as his friend Ernest Ashford (their service numbers are consecutive). They were assigned to HMS Duke of Wellington in January 1902 but thereafter their careers took separate paths. While on HMS Philomel from 1908 to 1914 he was awarded the King’s Silver Medal for good services in the Persian Gulf, and the Africa General Service Medal (Somaliland 1908-10). He joined HMS Bulwark in September 1914 and died with 737 others on 26th November 1914 when the ship, a pre-Dreadnought battleship of 15,000 tons built in 1899, blew up in the River Medway opposite Sheerness at 7.35am. According to a statement by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons that afternoon, an internal magazine explosion rent the ship asunder, and the ship had entirely disappeared when the smoke had cleared away. Nearby Sheemess and Rainham took the brunt of the blast and rumours began to run wild among the residents of a possible Zeppelin raid or that the ship had been sunk by a German submarine. An inquest discounted all these rumours and confirmed the cause as an explosion in a magazine. There were only 12 survivors.
Tom joined the Navy at the same time as his friend Ernest Ashford (their service numbers are consecutive). They were assigned to HMS Duke of Wellington in January 1902 but thereafter their careers took separate paths. While on HMS Philomel from 1908 to 1914 he was awarded the King’s Silver Medal for good services in the Persian Gulf, and the Africa General Service Medal (Somaliland 1908-10). He joined HMS Bulwark in September 1914 and died with 737 others on 26th November 1914 when the ship, a pre-Dreadnought battleship of 15,000 tons built in 1899, blew up in the River Medway opposite Sheerness at 7.35am. According to a statement by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons that afternoon, an internal magazine explosion rent the ship asunder, and the ship had entirely disappeared when the smoke had cleared away. Nearby Sheemess and Rainham took the brunt of the blast and rumours began to run wild among the residents of a possible Zeppelin raid or that the ship had been sunk by a German submarine. An inquest discounted all these rumours and confirmed the cause as an explosion in a magazine. There were only 12 survivors.
HMS BULWARK
The ship in which he died with 737 others including Ernest Ashford, also from
Stalbridge
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PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL
His name is on Panel 4
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