Ordinary Seaman George Hoggarth was born on 10 July 1896 in Barrow and at the time of his death was a crew member on board the destroyer HMS Mounsey. The ship (a Yarrow ‘M' Class vessel) was constructed between September 1914 and November 1915; it had a top speed of 35 to 36 knots and a crew of 79. The ship was sold in 1921 and broken up, ironically, in Germany.
George had volunteered for navy service and enlisted in August 1915 at Huddersfield whilst working for the Mirfield Colliery Company; previously he had been employed in the shipyard at Barrow - which probably explains his decision to join the Navy.
Although he came through the Battle of Jutland unscathed, it was during routine operations that George was drowned. On Sunday, 8 October 1916, HMS Mounsey left the naval base at Scapa, in the Orkneys, for a routine exercise. The following day, in conjunction with HMS Erin, the Mounsey (according to the ship's log) carried out exercises, commencing at 2pm. The log records that at 5.30pm a man was reported overboard on the port side: this was George Hoggarth. The ship was stopped and the lifeboat launched. A search was carried out at slow speed for the next forty minutes but to no avail. No trace could be found of George. At 6.10pm the ship rejoined the flotilla and returned to Scapa the next day, 10 October.
The Dewsbury Reporter published an article two weeks later, reproducing a long letter to George's mother at 24 Bell Street, Ravensthorpe, from Lieutenant Frank Butt of HMS Mounsey. He described how George was "...walking on the upper deck, just before dark [with a] heavy sea running. He had got about halfway along the ship when we took a sea forward which washed along the deck and knocked him off his feet. He was seen to go over the side. The ship was turned quickly and the lifeboat got ready for launching and everything possible was done to find him. He was never seen again after he was washed overboard. He had sea boots and oilskins on at the time which would have made it impossible for him to keep himself afloat at all." Lieutenant Butt goes on to say how, despite the state of the sea, there were more than enough men who immediately volunteered to crew the lifeboat in an attempt to find him.
He finishes "I understand that your son was in the habit of sending you part of his pay, so I am enclosing a note from myself which I hope you will accept in the spirit in which it is offered."
George Hoggarth, who was 20 years old, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial. The memorial is one of three built to commemorate the men of the Royal Navy who died at sea and who thus have no known grave. These memorials, at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth, were located at each of the Navy's manning ports. The Plymouth Memorial lists the names of 7,256 men of the Royal Navy who have no known grave but the sea.
9 October 1916
Research by David Tattersfield MA, WFA Development Trustee. George Hoggarth is included in David's book "A Village Goes to War". ISBN 0-9534689-3-3.
