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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Canadian Midshipmen Lost With H.M.S. GOOD HOPE


Malcolm12hl

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As part of my developing research project on the crews of H.M.S. GOOD HOPE and H.M.S. MONMOUTH, both lost with all hands at Coronel on 1 November 1914, I am interested in hearing any information that members might have on the four Royal Canadian Navy Midshipmen lost aboard the former vessel and commemorated on the war memorial at Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The only information I have comes from the CWGC database:

 

Malcolm CANN (M/401), aged 18, born Yarmouth, N.S.
John V. W., HATHEWAY (M/406), aged 19, born Granville, N.S.
Arthur Wiltshire SILVER (M/416), aged 20, born Halifax, N.S.
William Archibald PALMER (M/?), aged 20, born Ottawa, Ontario

 

I assume that they joined the GOOD HOPE when she called at Halifax in mid-August 1914, and they might have come from the old cruiser H.M.C.S. NIOBE, which the fledgling Canadian Navy used for training duties on the east coast, based at Halifax.  I do not know if the R.C.N. supplied Midshipmen to any other British cruisers, or whether this was an isolated example.

 

I would be very grateful to hear any additional information members might have on these young men, and I wonder if any service records for the four survive in Canada.

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Thank you gentlemen.  It is very strange that they do not turn up on the Canadian databases - they became casualties on a British ship, but they are commemorated on the Halifax war memorial, and I would have thought that the CWGC could only have got their details from Canadian sources.  Marc Milner makes reference to the the four in his centennial history of the RCN, and there might be a footnote reference there regarding sources - unfortunately my copy is in British Columbia and I am in England!

 

There might be a possibility that they were first assigned to H.M.S. SUFFOLK and then moved to the GOOD HOPE.  SUFFOLK's log for the period might survive at TNA - GOOD HOPE's, for obvious reasons, does not

 

Malcolm

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