Well Tell Their Stories: Royal Navy Casualties

We share the tales of some inspirational Royal Navy casualties from the World Wars in our next instalment of We Tell Their Stories.

We tell their stories

The Royal Navy in the World Wars

The Navy was long the backbone of the British Empire. 

As a small island nation tucked away in a rainy corner of Northwest Europe, for Britain to project any form of power, military or maritime, a strong navy was essential.

And strong it was. In both World Wars, the Royal Navy was a massively powerful force. Its battleships, destroyers, cruisers, submarines, and other vessels great and small, fought on seemingly every sea and ocean of the world. 

The Royal Navy’s new Dreadnaught class of battleship created a sea change in battleship design pre-Great War. This ultramodern ship made its rivals obsolete overnight and greatly increased the Royal Navy’s combat power.

At the beginning and end of World War One, the Royal Navy was the largest, most powerful navy in the world. Hundreds of thousands of men and women donned naval uniforms during the First World War, staffing a fleet of 800 vessels of varying size.

Great War naval engagements included clashes with Imperial German Navy ships as far afield as Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic and the Pacific. However, Royal Navy was most famous for its war-defining clash at Jutland in the North Sea.

Jutland took place between 31 May-1 June 1916. The Royal Navy’s objective was to contain the German High Seas Fleet, inflict damage, and keep their German opponents at port. 

While the German Navy surprised its British counterparts by sinking more vessels during the battle, the Royal Navy considers Jutland to be a strategic victory. After Jutland, the High Seas Fleet never left port again.

Post-Jutland, the Royal Navy’s duties relied on protecting shipping lanes, escorting Atlantic Convoys, and enforcing the economic blockade of German ports.

The Royal Navy was a dominant naval power during World War Two too.

It started the war with over 1,400 vessels sailing under its flags and ensigns and, by the end of the war, over 800,000 people had served in the Royal Navy.

Royal Navy ships and sailors had more important war work to undertake during World War Two. Its roles and duties included:

• Defence of trade routes and convoys
• Detection and destruction of enemy submarines and U-boats
• Defence of UK coastal and territorial waters
• Troop movement and escort
• Economic warfare and blockades

The Battle of the Atlantic, fought for control of possibly the most important shipping route of the war, was a victory for the Royal Navy. 

Through close cooperation with other British services, Allied navies, and the Merchant Fleet, the Navy was able to deploy its know-how and powerful technologies to defeat the German U-boat menace.

Although the United States would end the war as the world’s chief naval power, the Royal Navy still left World War Two as a major, victorious player.

Royal Navy casualties of the World Wars

The size and scope of the Royal Navy and its involvement in both World Wars meant operational casualties and losses were inevitable.

Ships were vulnerable to fire from other vessels, sea mines, coastal gun battery fire, submarines, and, especially in the Second World War, aircraft. 
Commonwealth War Graves commemorates over 100,000 naval personnel, men and women, who lost their lives during the World Wars.

When split by conflict, Royal Navy casualties for the World Wars totalled:

• First World War: 48,642
• Second World War: 59,181

Providing a final resting place for naval casualties is often a sad impossibility. Many of the men and women that died in Royal Navy service during these major conflicts have no known grave but the sea.

That means Commonwealth War Graves commemorate these losses on naval memorials across the UK and the wider world. 

These provide not only beautiful pieces of commemorative architecture but are also focal points for remembering the sacrifice made by so many upon the high seas.

Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Saxton White

Image: Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Saxton White (Wikipedia Commons)

Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Saxton White was born in Bromley, Kent on 2 July 1886.

From a young age, Geoffrey heeded the call of the seas. He joined the Naval Cadets in 1902 and was soon patrolling the Mediterranean aboard the cruise HMS Aboukir. 

While his career started on the surface, Geoffrey found himself operating below the waves. By January 1918, the submarine E14 was under Geoffrey’s command, with Geoffrey achieving the rank of Lieutenant-Commander.

January would, unfortunately, see George and E14 on patrol for the final time.

E14 and her crew were searching the waters of the Dardanelles, off the Turkish coast, hunting for the German battlecruiser Goeben. 

Goeben was allegedly aground in the sector around the Dardanelles. It was up to E14 to find her and finish her off. Despite a tireless search, the German ship could not be located.

Instead, Geoffrey and his submersible began to turn back to port. They would not return.

The sequence of events that led to the sinking of the E14 also saw Geoffrey White draw deep into his courage and ultimately be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross award for incredible bravery.

Geoffrey’s Victoria Cross citation reads:

“The KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned Officers —
Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Saxton White, R.N.

For most conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as Commanding Officer of H.M. Submarine "E 14" on the 28th of January 1918.

E14 left Mudros on the 27th of January under instructions to force the Narrows and attack the Goeben which was reported aground off Nagara Point after being damaged during her sortie from the Dardanelles.

The latter vessel was not found and E14 turned back. At about 8.45 a.m. on 28 January a torpedo was fired from E14 at an enemy ship; 11 seconds after the torpedo left the tube a heavy explosion took place, caused all lights to go out, and sprang the fore hatch.

Leaking badly the boat was blown to 15 feet, and at once a heavy fire came from the forts, but the hull was not hit. "E 14" then dived and proceeded on her way out.

Soon afterwards the boat became out of control, and as the air supply was nearly exhausted, Lieutenant-Commander White decided to run the risk of proceeding on the surface.

Heavy fire was immediately opened from both sides and, after running the gauntlet for half an hour, being steered from below, E14 was so badly damaged that Lieutenant-Commander White turned towards the shore in order to give the crew a chance of being saved. He remained on deck the whole time himself until he was killed by a shell.”

Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Saxton White’s body was never recovered. As he has no known grave, Geoffrey is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Captain Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen

Image: Captain Edward Fegen (Wikimedia Commons)

Edward Fegen had seawater in his veins.

Born in Southsea, Hampshire, Edward was one of four children born to Vice-Admiral F.F. Fegen.
 
Edward entered the Osborne Royal Naval College at age 12. By 21, he was serving as a midshipman on the game-changing HMS Dreadnaught.
 
By 1918, Edward has risen through the ranks and was in command of his own vessel. HMS Garland was helmed by Lieutenant Fegen. It was while he was at the command of Garland, Fegen would earn a Sea Gallantry Medal.

In late March 1918, the British vessel SS War Knight collided with US oil carrier O.B. Jennings in the English Channel while in convoy. The Jennings was carrying highly flammable naphtha, which ignited as the two ships struck.

Garland pulled alongside the stricken vessels and was able to rescue dozens of crewmembers and officers from the blaze. For his calmness under pressure, Edward was awarded the Sea Gallantry Medal alongside Garland Quartermaster Driscoll.

Edward survived the Great War and was seconded to the Royal Australian Navy during the interwar years.

Come 1940 and war has hit Europe once again. Edward is 49 years. He has reached the rank of Captain and was serving as the commanding officer of the converted armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay.

On 5 November 1940, Jervis was sailing the Atlantic waves as part of the 38-vessel Convoy HX 84. All was not calm. Bearing down on the mix of smaller escort vessels and merchant ships was the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer.

The Scheer was heavily armed and armoured, part of a class of ships nicknamed “pocket battleships”. 

Jervis was no match for her much larger opponent. Despite this, it was her and her captain’s duty to protect the Convoy’s vulnerable merchant vessels.

To give the merchant vessels time to escape, Edward and Jervis attacked Admiral Scheer. Outsized and outgunned, Jervis managed to hold her own against the massive German ship for 22 minutes, taking multiple hits and setting aflame. 

Even as Jervis was being peppered by high-powered gunfire, Edward remained cool at the helm. At one point, his arm was shattered as the Captain remained at his post, even after the bridge was shot out from under him as the shelling intensified.

HMS Jervis Bay, Captain Edward Fegen and the majority of the crew stayed aboard and fought Admiral Scheer to the last.  Through their actions, 31 of the 38 Merchantmen of Convoy HX 84 were able to escape.

Edward was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his courage and defiance under fire. He is commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial.

Such was the fame of Edward’s actions against the Scheer that Prime Minister Winston Churchill mentioned Edward by name in his May 1945 “Five Years of War Speech” – some five years after Edward’s death.

Lieutenant-Commander Edgar Christopher Cookson

Image: Lieutenant-Commander Edgar Cookson (Wikimedia Commons)

You may not know it, but some of the duties of the Royal Navy during the Great War extended to river patrols.

Control of rivers essentially gives an army further options to command the battlefield, secure crossings, and potentially use waterborne sources of troop and supply transport.

In the case of Lieutenant-Commander Edgar Cookson, it was his vessel’s role to patrol the rivers of Mesopotamia, including the mighty Tigris.

The gunboat Comet was under Cookson’s charge. 

In September 1915, Comet and her 31-year-old commander were part of the British advance on Kut, in present-day Iraq.

British forces were clashing with the Ottoman Empire for control of important transport nodes and oil fields across Mesopotamia at this time. 

Kut would be the scene of furious fighting, including a savage siege, between September 1915 and February 1917. Some 23,000 British and Indian soldiers died in the Kut campaigns throughout the war.

Back to Edgar and the Comet. 

On 28 September, Comet was steaming up the Tigris in convoy with her squadron mates. It was during this time Lieutenant-Commander Cookson would lose his life but earn immortality as a Victoria Cross winner.

His VC citation reads:

“On 28 September 1915, the river gunboat "Comet" had been ordered with other gunboats to examine and, if possible, destroy an obstruction placed across the river by the Turks. 

When the gunboats were approaching the obstruction a very heavy rifle and machine gun fire was opened on them from both banks. 

An attempt to sink the centre dhow of the obstruction by gunfire having failed, Lieutenant-Commander Cookson ordered the "Comet" to be placed alongside, and himself jumped onto the dhow with an axe and tried to cut the wire hawsers connecting it with the two other craft forming the obstruction. 

He was immediately shot in several places and died within a very few minutes.”

Lieutenant-Commander Edgar Cookson VC is today buried in Amara War Cemetery, Iraq.

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