HMS Pyramus

[Andrew P]

Was in Fremantle Cemetery recently and visited the grave of Lt Nigel Cameron Westall of the HMS Pyramus. He died from illness on the 4th of November 1914.

From what I have been able to find the Pyramus escorted the New Zealand troopships to Albany, Western Australia and may have also come to Fremantle before the ship left for the Mid East.

Haven't been able to find much more about the ship after that.

Does anyone have any extra details on Lt Westall?

Regards

Andrew

[chrisharley9]

Andrew

Click here which includes a photo

Chris

[kin47]

Hello

The officer index cards at the NA (PRO) does not list a cause of death for Westall.

All best

don

[Andrew P]

Thanks for looking Chris & Don

[Guest]

Gidday Andy.

Some time back a former friend discovered an un-notated photo of a warship which had been taken by a Westralian soldier. Despite my attempts to convince him that it was the Pyramus, he settled for some obscure RN ship that had never been near Freo.

THe Pyramus was certainly in Western Australian waters at the beginning of November 1914. She had relieved the Psyche near Hobart and escorted the Kiwi warriors to Albany with the Philomel. That your officer is buried near Freo does not prove that Pyramus had berthed there. He may have been taken ashore as sick at Albany or anywhere in the vicinity and hospitalised near Freo which had the most appropriate facilities at the time.

Co-incidently the lack of readily accessible information about the 4 P's (Philomel,Psyche,Pioneer and Pyramus) is being addressed by staff of the Albany Library. Might I suggest that you alert him to this death, as it may well have been reported in the Albany papers if he did actually fall sick there.

On first seeing your question, I remembered that one of the P's had suffered storm damage whilst escorting the convoy from Albany. This was HMAS Pioneer, however.

Philomel is remembered in the naming of HMNZS Philomel which is the main shore establishment in Kiwiland today. The only reference to her and Pyramus, who were then part of the NZ squadron of the RN, after delivering the convoy to Albany, that I have, is that they sailed to the far east via Singapore. They may have resisted, as many of us do, the temptations of Freo, Perth and Hay St.

Incidently, I presume Throssell's grave in Katakarra is still on your to-do list.

It was also unfair of Kim to arrange a meet up at a time when Sandgropers would be giving up on dreams of Melbourne in the springtime.

Additionally, our Aussie cousins mentioned that your ABC has filmed episodes of a new TV series in Perth. It's called "Can we help?" and is designed to track down these oddities in Aussie history, society etc. The first episode examines the origns of the 2 finger salute and may well feature som of those rowdy Oz diggers, it should start very soon.

kiora

[Andrew P]

Cheers for the info mate.

Next time at Battye Library I'll be checking the Albany & state papers for any mention of the Pyramus and Westall's death.

In regard to Hugo, I haven't been to his grave but a fellow forum member has and visited his grave last week. I'll contact her for a photo.

Regards

Andrew

I hear that Melbourne in winter is a delightful place

[Guest GreenieC]

Hi, Peter here. I've just registered and this is my first post (I think - my previous attempt didn't seem to work. If it did, my apologies for the duplication).

In belated reply to the posts on HMS Pyramus by Andrew P and aukkid of 7 & 9 June last year:

HMAS Pioneer was the 'Western Approaches' patrol cruiser at Fremantle and sailed from that port in company with two transports to rendezvous with the first ANZAC convoy at sea.

AFAIK, Pyramus sailed with the main convoy direct from Albany and did not enter Freo. Her subsequent movements were a refit in Singapore, a few months on the East African blockade (along with Pioneer), then the rest of the war spent in the Persian Gulf and on the East Indies Station.

BTW, of the four 'Ps' mentioned by aukkid, Philomel was of the slightly earlier 'Pearl' class rather than the 'Pelorus' class which the other three belonged to.

I hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Peter

[Esskay]

Interesting old thread that Peter has found:

Seems that Nigel's brother Lt Ronald Cameron Westall died less than 2 weeks after him - CWGC has him listed as 2nd Btn Royal Sussex Regiment - 17th November 1914 - commemorated on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. SDGW shows 12th November - KIA

The 1901 census shows them living at 6 Bedford Place Bloomsbury - Nigel C (13) Ronald C (17) and elder sister Alfreda E (18) - all born Shanghai and younger brother Douglas C (10) born London - with their widower father Alfred Charles (65). He was shown as an Insurance Inspector.

Look like he married Alice Cameron in London in the 3rd qtr 1881. She seems to have died 4th qtr 1900 aged 42, and Alfred himself died 3rd qtr 1904 - aged 68

Cheers

Sue

[per ardua per mare per terram]

HMS Pyramus 3rd class cruiser. Stationed in New Zealand at the outbreak of war, she took part in the capture of Western Samoa, escorted the ANZAC convoy, served in Persian Gulf and East Indies and became a depot ship at Mudros (a naval base supporting the Gallipoli landings)

[Guest]

It's been fantastic reading through this post.

Nigel Cameron Westall was my great great uncle.

From what we know he died from complications with appendicitis on board.

He carried on with his duties through his immense pain as long as he possibly could. 

He was always remembered as an incredibly kind and gentle chap and my mother still has his silver match box engraved with his initials.

I hope this is a little interest to anyone posting in this thread.

Thank you to the person who posted the link to the photo of my great great uncle as neither me nor my mother had ever seen one and he is the double of my uncle as a young man 2 generations on.

It's fantastic to see the face of the man who's match box we have treasured generation after generation.

[Guest]

Hello to all! I just got my hands on a electrostated nickle silver cup stating that N.C. Westall won "Middle Weight" a board of the H.M.S. Britannia on 2 Dec 1903, which he boarded on 15th Jan 1903 being only 14 years old! 

[Guest]

Oh my goodness! Does that mean it is my uncles cup????

Westall as the above spelling is the rarer spelling 

Cameron was a family name that was passed down to all of the boy's including my uncle Julian who was also a Navy man and still surviving.

Can I ask you where you came a cross this cup.

I have a lot of our family silver. 

Would you be interested in parting with it? 

Regard's

Chantelle 

I'm about to call my mum beyond excitement 😀

Edited 11 November , 2018 by Guest
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