Stoker Berwick - HMS Pembroke - 1917

W G Berwick
Stoker 2nd Class RN K/39601
HMS Pembroke
3rd September 1917

“At Rest”

Name: BERWICK, WILLIAM GEORGE
Rank: Stoker 2nd Class Service: Royal Navy Unit Text: H.M.S. "Pembroke."
Age: 21 Date of Death: 03/09/1917 Service No: K/39601
Additional information: Son of William and Lucy Berwick, of 33, Quebec Rd., Thorpe Hamlet, Norwich.
Grave/Memorial Reference: CC. 49. Cemetery: NORWICH CEMETERY, Norfolk
www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2803052

No match on Norlink

The 4 year old William can be found on the 1901 Census at 29 Fishergate Norwich. This was the household of his parents, William, (aged 32 and a Brush Maker from Norwich), and Lucy, (aged 29 and a Silk Weaver from Norwich).

There was an attack by Gotha Bombers on the RN base at Chatham, (“HMS Pembroke”) on the night of the 3rd/4th September 1917. The normally very reliable Naval Net site lists 100 fatalities on this day, 18 the next day died as a result of wounds, 2 more on the following day, 2 more on the 8th and 1 more on the 11th.
www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1917-09Sep.htm

H.M.S Pembroke was a training establishment situated at the Royal Naval Barracks at Chatham. Given the date of George Boyd's death I wonder whether he was a casualty from the Gotha bombings............One of Naval Barracks more interesting features was the glassed roofed drill shed which was used during the Great War to house Naval ratings. On the night of the 3rd September 1917, four Gotha bombers crossed the channel from their base in Northern France & bombed the town of Thanet, the dockyard at Sheerness & finally Chatham Barracks. 136 Naval ratings were killed in the bombing, the majority from glass splinters from the drill shed roof.
1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19125

During 1917 the drill hall had been in use as overflow accommodation due to sailors being stranded when HMS Vanguard was sunk at Scapa Flow in July 1917 and an outbreak of cerebro-spinal meningitis, spotted fever, at the barracks causing in an increased need for sleeping accommodation to avoid further infection. Unfortunately this meant that the drill hall was full of soldiers on the evening of 3rd September 1917 with 900 men either sleeping or resting upon their hammocks.

At 9.30 pm five Gotha Bombers left Gontrode in Belgium, the bombers could carry 14 bombs each and this was the first time they had carried out a night-time attack, a decision made due to the great loss of the bombers during daylight raids. One of the bombers encountered engine problems and had to return to base but the remaining four carried on and passed over Eastchurch at around 11pm where they followed the River Medway towards Chatham. As this was the first night time raid the Medway Towns were unprepared and the whole of Chatham was illuminated with none of the anti-aircraft guns prepared. A practise alert had been carried out earlier in the day and when the planes were finally spotted and an alert given a lot of people ignored the warning believing it to be another practise drill.

46 bombs were dropped over Gillingham and Chatham causing much damage. The drill hall suffered a direct hit and the bomb shattered the glass roof, sending dangerous shards of glass flying through the drill hall before exploding when it hit the floor. The clock upon the drill hall stopped at 11.12, giving the exact time the bomb exploded. The men asleep or resting inside had little chance of survival, those that were not injured from the explosion were cut to pieces by the falling glass from the roof. Ordinary seaman Frederick W. Turpin arrived at the drill hall to offer assistance, later he recorded the scene in his notebook:

It was a gruesome task. Everywhere we found bodies in a terribly mutilated condition. Some with arms and legs missing and some headless. The gathering up of dismembered limbs turned one sick¦ It was a terrible affair and the old sailors, who had been in several battles, said they would rather be in ten Jutlands or Heliogolands than go through another raid such as this.

The rescuers spent seventeen hours searching the rubble for their fellow seamen, many using their bare hands to dig through the rubble:

It was a sad spectacle in the moonlight, officers and men carrying the dead bodies of comrades into buildings which had been transformed into a mortuary and the seriously wounded cases into motor ambulances which sped to the hospital - flying glass and falling debris accounting for many of the casualties.

E. Cronk also attended to offer assistance, he stated later:

The raider dropped two bombs; one in the middle of the drill shed and one near the wall of the parade round just where the sailors were sleeping. I shall never forget that night, the lights fading and the clock stopping. We of the rescue party picking out bodies, and parts of bodies, from among glad and debris and placing them in bags, fetching out bodies in hammocks and laying them on a tarpaulin on the parade ground (you could not identify them). I carried one sailor to the sick bay who was riddled with shrapnel and had no clothes left on him. In the morning, to show that the officials could tell who was who, they had a general Pipe asking all the sailors of different messes if they could identify any of the lost; it was impossible in most cases. It was one of the most terrible nights I have ever known. The crying and the moaning of dying men who had ten minutes before been fast asleep.

Gideon Gardiner described the scene of the temporary morgue within the gymnasium:

Some had never woken up; apparently the shock appeared to have stopped their hearts. They were stretched out, white, gaunt, drawn faces, with eyes nearly bolting out of their heads. Others were greatly cut up, mangled, bleeding and some were blown limb from limb.

The sailors who survived with injuries were treated on site by medics and the sick bay staff, however many of the injuries were too serious and later died at the hospital. It is still uncertain how many sailors died in the drill shed, some say 130 and some say 136 men died. It is estimated 90 men died whilst in their hammocks and another 40 so seriously injured they were not expected to live. The official total of dead after the raid was 98 however with the seriously ill in hospital the number rose to around 136.

The funeral took place on Thursday 6th September with the procession comprising of 18 lorries draped with the Union Jack and each carrying 6 coffins. These 98 men were buried at Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham with another 25 men being interred elsewhere and later burials taking place once the ratings had been identified. All the men were buried with full military honours and were followed by a procession of marching soldiers and sailors with thousands of people lining the streets.

www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=358.0

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Norwich / Earlham (show map)

Taken on: August 16, 2009

Tags:

Earlham Cemetery

Norwich

England

Headstone

Dulce et Decorum est

William Berwick

William George Berwick

HMS Pembroke

03/09/1917

3rd September 1917

Air raid victim « less

Sets appears in: • In memoria • Dulce et Decorum Est..Pro Patria Mori more » • Earlham Cemetery « less

Groups appears in: • The Great War 1914 - 1918 • History is All Around Us more » • Old Soldiers (rest in peace) • The Norfolk Dead • Military headstones • The Home Fallen of the Great War 1914 - 1930 (UK CWGC Headstones • REMEMBER THEM « less

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