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Remembered Today:

HMS 'Clan Macnaughton'


Mark Hone

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I am giving a boost to this old thread because we are approaching the centenary of the loss of 'Clan MacNaughton'. There have been some other threads and various references to the sinking elsewhere on the Forum.

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In Memoriam: Richard Hugh Jones, Engineer RNR, HMS Clan MacNaughton. Commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial. From Holyhead, Anglesey, where he had previously served on the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co. ferry boats. Aged 23 (though the family memorial headstone at Holyhead says 24). His father was also a Marine Engineer. He married Alma Parsons in Liverpool, November 1913, and probate shows his last address as 162 Cleveland Street, Birkenhead. His widow was later resident in Whittington, Shropshire.

Nid a'n Ango - Not Forgotten

Clive

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In Memoriam: CH/16717 Arthur Galtress Cpl RMLI HMS Clan MacNaughton. Died 3rd February 1915. Aged 21. Son of Emily Galtress, of 9, N.E. Crescent, Leeman Rd., York, and the late George Galtress. Commemorated Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent, 13. Commemorated in The King’s Book York, St Lawrence York War Memorial and St Martin Coney Street York.

Arthur Galtress was born in York in 1893 the third of five children the eldest was my grandmother (Nellie) who kept his photo in her handbag for the rest of her life. Their mother was widowed in 1902 and struggled with five children between age 12 and 2. Arthur and his brother were awarded places at The Blue Coat School in York and Arthur's RMLI tests in Maths and English taken on attestation in 1910 show that he had been taught well. He had been recently promoted to Corporal when he joined the ill fated ship in December 1914.

Mourned by the family his memory lives on ... last summer a copy of his story was deposited at St Martin Coney Strteet York

Robin

Edited by Robindad
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In memory of Bury Grammar School old boy Midshipman William Brown, Royal Naval Reserve, who died in the sinking of HMS 'Clan MacNaughton' on 3rd February 1915, aged 19. While at Bury, William Brown would have been taught by long-serving Classics Master Revd. E.J.S. Lamburn. Lamburn's daughter, Richmal Crompton (nee Lamburn), went on to create a very famous William Brown, 'Just William'.

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In memory of Joseph Hemsley RMLI, died when HMS Clan McNaughton was lost on this day one hundred years ago. Lest we forget.

Joe was my grandfathers step-brother and the first of five members of my family who died in the Great War. He was a time served Royal Marine who had been recalled at the outbreak of the war aged forty while he was working at the Norwich gasworks. He served with the RM Brigade at Antwerp before being posted to Clan McNaughton. Joe left a widow Elizabeth (Bessie) but they had no children. I am the proud keeper of his medals and plaque.

Lionboxer

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Remembering too, Petty Officer Robert Henry Davison, who also died, aged 45, when the HMS Clan MacNaughton went down. The oldest man on the Market Weighton War Memorial Roll of Honour. He was the husband of Louisa and lived at 5 Perseverance Parade, Holme Road, Market Weighton.

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Remembering Royal Marine William Streets of Brigg, lost aged 19. He must have served alongside Joe Hemsley.

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William Streets was one of 37 Royal Marines on board many of whom were reservists. I believe they were intended as a boarding party. The senior marine appears to be the Colour Sergeant Joyce.

Last year I started searching for additional information about each of the Marines and have some information on about 15 of them.

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Remembering Royal Marine William Streets of Brigg, lost aged 19. He must have served alongside Joe Hemsley.

Without a doubt. Joe was probably one of the oldest while William was probably one of the youngest. One was too old to be fighting and the other too young to die!

I'd be interested to see what you've gleaned about them Robindad.

Lionboxer

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William Streets was one of 11 children. His father was a bricklayer's labourer and the family appear to have moved fairly regularly. They lived in Brigg on the 1901 census but had moved to nearby Kirton Lindsay by 1911, where Will is recorded as a farm labourer. His father had become an asphalter. I suspect it was a fairly typical story for here of uneducated working-class parents trying to find work and renting wherever was convenient. The birth places of the children suggest at least 7 moves over 15 years. In 1911 there were two parents and 10 children living in a house with 5 rooms.

William must have signed up in 1914. No doubt the Royal Marines offered him a world of adventure, travel, smart uniforms and a chance to make something of himself. The ending was so different.

Edit: CWGC lists him as William Street. I am sure that this is our man because the war memorial records him as 'RMLI'

Edited by DaveBrigg
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Royal Marines on Clan MacNaughton

I believe there were 37 and I started working through the list from Private William ALLEN to Private William Edward YOUNG. I have looked for information on 23 of them so far. For some I have nothing more than the CWGC shows - for others I have found them in censuses and other records. I will go through my notes and post about each as soon as I can ... lambing imminent here and recovering from storm dmage followed by frozen water in sheep sheds.

Edited by Robindad
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  • 3 months later...

vealnet: I know its been some years (!) since a) the ship disappeared and B) your posting to this thread but may I offer some simple plausible explanations? A) On sick leave and/or temporary pass to visit immediate family who were sick; B) medical leave or ashore to attend to his personal medical issue(s); C) on shore or another vessel on ship duties such as obtaining special stores or equipment especially due to his rating as a shipwright - fixer of all things.

John

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I strongly suggest one of the many naval specialists start a major thread on the disappeared without a trace during or in the immediate aftermath of the war say August 1, 1914 to December 31, 1922 [ though going beyond November 11, 1918 to December 1922 practically doubles the actual traditional Western European perception of the conflict ]. I started a thread on the 2 French Navy minesweepers built at the head of Lake Superior in the summer of 1918 and which while 3 of them left for France 2 disappeared in the immediate aftermath of the war in late 1918. The Bras d'Or was an Admiralty C.D. [ i.e. Canadian Drifter ] built to British Admiralty designs and I also referred to the disappearance of the American built cargo vessel HEWITT in Jan 1921. Research would be daunting of course but combined with modern underwater marine technological advances and digital data etc.... could be quite fascinating.

John

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  • 2 years later...
  • 1 year later...

Sorry to come in on what is now quite an old post but I didn’t want to start another one. Whilst doing my family tree I recently discovered that my Great Great Uncle, Chief Petty Officer Fleetwood John Bolitho was lost when the ship went down. I cannot help but feel for my great grandmother who , having lost her brother when the Clan MacNaughton went down, subsequently lost her youngest son, Able Seaman Frederick Robert Scott , HMS Vindictive, during the Zeebrugge raid on 23/4/1918. Another bit of investigation to be carried out.

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On 21/08/2009 at 10:42, vealnet said:

Okay, I'm confused... First please excuse me if I get something wrong as I am new to this, but I have just got my great-grandfather's Navy service record and he served on the Clan McNaughton from 23 Dec 1914 to 3 Feb 1915. But he certainly wasn't lost as he is then registered as being on Pembroke II from the 4 Feb 1915 and served on many other ships.

He was a shipwright so I was wondering whether my great-grandfather could have been involved in fitting out the Clan McNaughton. If the Clan McNaughton left port on the 3 Feb 1915 then it is possible my great-grandfather was not on it as he had finished the fitting out. This of course assumes the Clan McNaughton left port on the 3 Feb 1915, is this the case as I have been unable to find any evidence of this?

The only alternative is that he was a survivor, but this is contrary to eveyone saying that all hands were lost.

All help to clear up this mystery is very much appreciated.

Appreciate this is an old thread  but I would assume that if he didn’t sail with the ship when it left on its final patrol but remained a member of the crew, he would have done so until the ship was reported lost on 3rd February. It seems the most likely explanation

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27 minutes ago, Labeline said:

my Great Great Uncle, Chief Petty Officer Fleetwood John Bolitho

A correction: Fleetwood BOLITHO was a Petty Officer 1st Class, not a Chief Petty Officer.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 01/08/2019 at 19:35, horatio2 said:

A correction: Fleetwood BOLITHO was a Petty Officer 1st Class, not a Chief Petty Officer.

Thanks. Can’t remember where I read it but I will amend my records.

Edited by Labeline
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  • 2 months later...

I’m looking for a James Stephen foreman he died on the clan MacNaughton he had a nickname ‘sunnie’would Love to know what it meant it’s my great great uncle would love to know where I could get a picture off him x

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The Fleet Air Am Museum holds his original engagement (enlistment) papers which should include the Parental Consent Forms to allow him to enlist as a boy. Unfortunately the National Museum of the Royal Navy (which includes the FAAM) is closed to all enquiries until further notice but you could try in the middle of 2020 to see if they have resumed any sort of service for their very frustrated customers.

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  • 1 year later...

This my great great grandad william Allen one of the Royal Marines, he is on the left of the three

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Edited by Sebastian Adam Allen Coward
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I don't believe that HMS Clan MacNaughton was lost in the minefield laid by the Berlin off the north coast of Donegal.  I take divers onto wrecks off here and have dived several wrecks which were lost in the minefield, SS Manchester Commerce, SS Caprivi, HMS Audacious, HMS Viknor etc.  The Clan MacNaughton would readily be recognised by the presence of 8 of 4.7inch guns and apart from HMS Viknor, none of the wrecks we have dived in the minefield have been armed as such.  Of course, there is a possibility that I have not found HMS Clan MacNaughton but she is quite a big ship & she should have been found in the survey completed by the Irish survey ship, Celtic Explorer.

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