Wolverhampton Naval Man’s Battle Experience

On 21 January 1915 a small article appeared in the Express & Star. This stated that a Mrs Jones, of 62 Dartmouth Street, Wolverhampton, had recently received a letter from her husband, who was a crew member on the H.M.S. Kent. This ship had taken part in action off the Falkland Islands. The letter states:

We sank the Nurnburg on December 8th. I shall never forget seeing the German ship sunk and the lifeless bodies of her men floating in the water.

He goes on to give more detail about how they were about 3000 miles from England when they “gave chase” to two German ships, and “sent them to the bottom”. According to the article, Mr Jones had had a lucky escape, as he was originally going to join the Bulwark before being called to the Kent. The former ship had recently blown up after an accidental explosion, killing 736 men.

As we do not have first names for either of the Jones couple, we cannot really find out any more information about them, as they are not living at 62 Dartmouth Street in the 1901 census. The HMS Kent was the ninth Royal Navy ship by that name, a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser that was launched in 1901. This ship survived the War, before being sold for scrap in 1920.