PO Stoker George Hewison

[Malcolm]

PO Stoker George Hewison

Name: HEWISON, GEORGE

Initials: G

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Petty Officer Stoker

Regiment: Royal Navy

Unit Text: H.M.S. "Laforey."

Age: 27

Date of Death: 23/03/1917

Service No: 312165

Additional information: Son of Henry and Elizabeth Hewison, of Thorpe, Wainfleet, Lincs.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: 23.

Memorial: CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL

HMS Laforey was an L Class Destroyer of 965 to 1010 tons launched 22/8/1913 at Fairfield. Ex Florizel. Armed with 3 x 4 inch, 1 x 2 pounder, 4 x 21 inch TT. 24,500 shp turbine giving 29 knots. Served with 3rd Destroyer Flotilla.

Dittmar and Colledge gives Sunk 25/3/1917 by RN mine in the Channel. The date on the Chatham Memorial is 23/3/1917 as is a shipmate on http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Kent/Lympne.html

Aye

Malcolm

[Michael Lowrey]

Laforey sank not on an RN mine, but rather a German mine laid by UB 12(actually the lone torpedo-attack boat converted to minelaying) off Griz Nez. Date was the 23rd.

Best wishes,

Michael

[Malcolm]

Laforey sank not on an RN mine, but rather a German mine laid by UB 12(actually the lone torpedo-attack boat converted to minelaying) off Griz Nez. Date was the 23rd.

Best wishes,

Michael

Michael,

Dittmar & Colledge, Warships of 1914-1919 and several other sites give an RN mine.

Aye

Malcolm

[Terence Munson]

Malcolm and Michael, I found this entry on Gordon Miller's site in section BRITISH NAVAL VESSELS LOST AT SEA.

LAFOREY, 23rd March 1917, English Channel, 11 miles S by W of Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, S coast of England (50-39’N, 00.14’W) - mined. Detonated German-laid mine off Shoreham; casualties not known. Some sources date her loss on the 25th March

Also I have to say this post is a chilling reminder of the loss of the Grimsby trawler and all 20 Crew when GY65 LAFOREY hit a reef off west Norway and capsized just before midnight on the 7th of February 1954 or the morning of the 8th.

Terry

[Michael Lowrey]

Malcom/Terry,

Actually a bit of a strange case. The key, as always with a mine hit, is the location. And various sources I've seen list Gris Nez or Shoreham. (Anybody got the report on the loss from the TNA?) A mine hit off Shoreham would definitely have been laid by a German submarine minelayer. The same is true for the Gris Nez area, at least according to the maps in the German official history series (the British mines wouldn;t go in for some months yet.)

The way you get a British mine hit is to go further east than Griz Nez, into the mine barrages and mine nets aimed at preventing the Flanders-based U-boats from getting out/going through Dover...

Best wishes,

Michael