William Issac Gale

[chrisharley9]

Name: GALE, WILLIAM ISAAC

Initials: W I

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Stoker 1st Class

Regiment: Royal Navy

Unit Text: H.M.S. "P. 46."

Age: 23

Date of Death: 12/09/1920

Service No: PO/K30752

Additional information: Son of Isaac James Gale, of High St., Avebury, and the late Annie Gale.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Cemetery: AVEBURY (ST. JAMES) CHURCHYARD

does any Pal have any info on this chap or the ship that he served - I'd be very grateful for anything

All The Best

Chris

[DirtyDick]

P46 was a coastal patrol craft.

Stoker 1st Class equates (approximately) with Able Seaman.

Richard

[Michael Lowrey]

P 46 was one of the P-boat type patrol craft built from 1915 to 1918. The had very low freeboards, sharply cutaway funnels, and a small turning circle. They looked somewhat like a large submarine, the idea being that this would allow them to get near enough to U-boats to sink them by ramming or gunfire. The low freeboard would have made them rather unplesant to serve on in rough weather. Armament was a 5 incher, a 40 mm AA gun, and in some vessels two 14 inch torpedo tubes. Speed was 20 knots, length 244 ft 6, inches, beam 23 feet 9 inches, mean draught 8 feet.

The P boats served with Dover Patrol, Nore Local Defence Force, and Portsmouth Escort Force during the war.

P 46 was one of a number of vessels (P 41 to P 54, though several as PC decoy patrol boats) ordered in March 1916, in this case from Harkess. P 46 was sold in October 1925.

Best wishes,

Michael

[chrisharley9]

Many thanks for the replys so far

All The Best

Chris