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Remembered Today:

Royal Edward Troop ship


stevem49

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Just realised that I have the casualty list for the Royal Edward. 11,000 ton allied Troop Transport sunk by German Sub near Italian Dodecanese Island of Kos - 1,865 troops drowned. From the list i seem to have all of the Norfolk men

example of details -

Surname - Kemp

Cname Tom

No 20612 TF

rk L/Cpl Bn1

born Spalding Lincs, living Mileham Norfolk, enlisted Norwich Norfolk.

Fa D at sea 13/08/1915 HT Royal Edward

If anyone would like me to check the print out just let me know.

Steve

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Just realised that I have the casualty list for the Royal Edward. 11,000 ton allied Troop Transport sunk by German Sub near Italian Dodecanese Island of Kos - 1,865 troops drowned. From the list i seem to have all of the Norfolk men

example of details -

Surname - Kemp

Cname Tom

No 20612 TF

rk L/Cpl Bn1

born Spalding Lincs, living Mileham Norfolk, enlisted Norwich Norfolk.

Fa D at sea 13/08/1915 HT Royal Edward

If anyone would like me to check the print out just let me know.

Steve

Dear Steve,

Please could you check the followingfor me please:- Private albert Edwin Collins, 10583, 2nd bn, Hampshire Regiment. age 21 from Liss, Hants. I am trying to find out why and what he was doing on the ship.

Thanks in advance

Keila

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Is the number of 1865 casualties definitely true?

A quick search of other sites suggest about 1000 (one site says only 132 but this might have been just the crew)

Adrian

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Keila

I cannot see him. It seems to be men from Norfolk mainly with odd Suffolk men (born in the counties).

The Royal Edward with its sister troopship The Royal George (both Cunard liners turned troopships I believe)

They left Devonport in July and the troops were issued with Tropical kit. It was a rough trip to Gib and hardly anyone ate anything. They entered the Med and it was pleasantly warm. They played Housey-Housey and Crown and Anchor to pass the time and it felt like a holiday cruise!

A German Submarine was sighted on the surface and it appeared to be refuelling. There was no Naval escort for the troopships . Fifteen hours later the Royal Edward was attacked with heavy loss of life.

The above was from a Machine gunner of the 4th Northants Regt who was on the Royal George.

The Hampshire's were on their way to Gallipoli.

The figure of 1865 killed is written on the front of the print out so I cannot verify - I have not not every man ! A quick check on CWGC site seems to show that men from Essex Regt and Hampshire Regt were on it.

This print out is of Norfolk men so there must be a full list somewhere! Possibly at the National Archives.

Steve

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A few Lancashire Fusiliers were on it too,

one of them was Major Cuthbert Bromley VC having been treated for his wounds he was ready to go back to his unit when it was torpeoed. He is one of the 'six before breakfast' also one of my men on the Seaford memorial. So two connections with him.

mandy

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I believe there were 31 officers and 1335 men embarked (from Alexandria), as reinforcements for units on the peninsula. The Royal Edward was hit by one torpedo, on the port side, just forward of the mainmast. It happened at 0915 on 13th August, and she sank in under 5 minutes.

Although the boats on the starboard side were got away, 205 men from the Hampshires died, and in all only 600 survivors made it back to Alex - 29 of them Hampshire men. 8 men from my village (west End) dies, including 2 pairs of brothers.

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Steve,

The 'Times' reported the loss on 18 August stating, 'from information received she was carying 32 military officers, 1350 troops and a ships crew of 220 officers and men, mainly reinforcements for 29 Div. and details of RAMC. Full details had not been received but it was known that 600 lives had been saved'.

Later Lloyds Register of Shipping revealed that out of a compliment of 1586 less than 500 were saved.

My own count from Soldiers Died-CD was 12 officers and 831.

Keith

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pte c j ward RAMC says that out of 77 men and 8 officers,only 3 officers,14 men and the sgt/maj answered the roll call when they got to alex,but some may be on other rescue ships,they had just finished a parade when the torpedo struck,the other ship couldnt stop because she was carrying troops,after 3 hours a hospital ship arrived then another ship,followed by 2 minesweepers,bernard

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bernard,

a rough count on the edward panels to ramc gives the number of 147 officers and men who died when it sunk.

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A SD-CD search, although it may not be completely accurate, revealed the following:-

2/Hants 207 O.R's 5 Officers

1/Essex 174 0

RAMC 143 4

RASC 119 2

1/Border Regt. 59 0

2/SWB 53 0

1/KOSB 48 0

1/Lancs. Fus. 27 1 (Cuthbert Bromley, VC)

RE 1 0

Since looking these up I've been advised that at least 66 Labour Corps. men were lost but it's not clear if they were included in the RASC count.

Keith

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Keith - interesting reading. I can't recall where my figures came from, sadly, so I wouldn't dispute yours by any means.

Whichever, it's a lot of brave souls.

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I would'nt put money on my figures being precise either, but it was a terrible price to pay. For Norfolk the finger of fate played a cruel trick as 172 of the 174 1/Essex losses were men from 3rd (Special Reserve) Bn. Norfolk Regt. bases at Felixstowe. On 23rd June and 24 July a total of 300 of them volunteered to transfer to the 1/Essex. The Royal Edward loaded troops at Avonmouth on 28 July.

Keith

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For future reference; for anyone who may like to put "faces to names" for those who died on the 13 August I attach the following.

DOLLMAN, LEONARD JOSEPH

Initials: L J

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Private

Regiment/Service: Army Service Corps

Unit Text: 18th Labour Coy.

Age: 35

Date of Death: 13/08/1915

Service No: SS/14153

Additional information: Husband of Nellie Dollman, of 144a, King's Cross Rd., London.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 199 or 233 to 236 and 331.

Memorial: HELLES MEMORIAL

post-14294-1158487435.jpg

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I would'nt put money on my figures being precise either, but it was a terrible price to pay. For Norfolk the finger of fate played a cruel trick as 172 of the 174 1/Essex losses were men from 3rd (Special Reserve) Bn. Norfolk Regt. bases at Felixstowe. On 23rd June and 24 July a total of 300 of them volunteered to transfer to the 1/Essex. The Royal Edward loaded troops at Avonmouth on 28 July.

Keith

Hello each

Thanks for all the extra info. Nice to put a picture to a name. Makes the printout more real. Instead of having pages of men from Norfolk who served in various regiments but died on the same day.

I think the totals came from one of my books written just after the event. The country needed a bit of hate, so the figures were no doubt added to for effect.

Steve

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On 13th August 1915 HMT Royal Edward, built 1908, 11,117 grt, was sunk by torpedo from German U-boat UB 14 in position 36.13N, 25.51E, 6 miles W from Kandeliusa in the Aegean Sea. She was carrying troops and government stores from Avonmouth & Alexandria to Mudros, and was owned by Canadian Northern Steamships Ltd of Toronto. 132 members of her crew died.

I don't have any figures for the number of troops who were lost.

Best wishes

David

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  • 2 years later...

I am trying to verify that William Knowling of Waterford, Ireland was a crew member on the Royal Edward and died as a result of the sinking. He would have been 50-60 years old. Does the casualty list Steve Morse speaks of in his post of Sep 15, 2006 contain crew casualties. Any help I can get is greatly appreciated.

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I've a list of all the crew (seperated between "died" and "survived"). he doesn't appear on either.

dave.

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2/Hants 207 O.R's 5 Officers

1/Essex 174 0

RAMC 143 4

RASC 119 2

1/Border Regt. 59 0

2/SWB 53 0

1/KOSB 48 0

1/Lancs. Fus. 27 1 (Cuthbert Bromley, VC)

RE 1 0

Give or take the odd one, those figures do appear to be correct. Interestingly 8 pairs of brothers died on this ship (including one set of twins who were part of the crew (the Scullion brothers from Glasgow).

For further reading on this event, I would heartily recommend this book... Burnley & The Royal Edward Disaster

Dave.

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A gave the list to another forum member who had an interest in it. I do remember that it only had troops drowned on it and no crew.

sm

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Williamp,

can you give any more details re. Knowling?

Occupation?

Why do you think he was on the Royal Edward?

Kath.

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He was my great grandmother, Martha Knowling's, brother and the family lore is that she was told of his death by a crewmate. The family was from Waterford City, Waterford, Ireland. William may have gone by the Gaelic selling of 'Nolan' which was not uncommon. In fact it wasn't until after she died that we learned Martha Nolan was actually Knowling.

I was just looking into possibly verifying the story. Does the crew list have any 'Knowling' or 'Nolan'? Maybe the family had the wrong brother, there was a Richard and a George J. All were born between 1864-1875. The father, George Knowling, died in 1875. His mother was Catherine Smedmore and we do not know when she died but she would have been 71 in 1915, if alive.

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