291538 PO Stoker Francis George England, Royal Navy.
35 year old Francis was born at Newton Abbot, Devon on 2 March 1881 and , a ‘career sailor', had enlisted into the Royal Navy in the late 1890s. At the time of his death, he was serving on HMS Defence which, earlier in the war, had been involved in the pursuit of the Goeben and the Breslau. On 31 May 1916, HMS Defence, as Rear Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot's flagship, led the First Cruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland. During the evening of this day, part of the First Cruiser Squadron became entangled in the fighting around HMS Lion, Admiral Beatty's flagship.
While closing for the kill at high speed with the German cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, (which, after being crippled in a clash with British battlecruisers, was drifting uselessly between the German and British fleets) Defence presented a target for the combined firepower of the German battlecruisers, whose proximity was hidden by smoke and mist. After initial damage she was struck by a salvo which blew up her after magazine, triggering explosions on the ammunition rails leading to the broadside 7.5 inch guns. Within seconds, another salvo immediately hit forward, and she blew up in a spectacular explosion, sinking with the loss of Rear Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot and her entire complement of 54 officers, 845 men and 4 civilians. Francis was just one of the 903 lives lost on this ship that day.
He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and his body most likely remains on the wreck of the Defence which, since 2006, has been designated as a protected place (ie an official ‘war grave') under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
31 May 1916
Research by David O'Mara, Croonaert Research Services.
