| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
The Royal Navy Register of Seaman’s Service 1848-1939 shows John Chambers born in Hull on 13 Sep 1884 and enlisted in the Royal Navy on 28 Oct 1915. At the time he was five feet five inches tall, had a forty inch chest, brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He served on HMS Cormorant, Victory 11, Royal Sovereign (which missed the Battle of Jutland because of engine problems), HMS Implacable, Blenheim and HMS Ruby.
Artificers were introduced into the Royal Navy as steam replaced sail and it was the intention Royal Navy engineers would be “second to none”. Artificers were known as “Tiffs” and John had been well prepared for his job at sea for before the war he had been a boiler maker and caulker at the Beverley shipbuilders Cook Welton and Gemmell.
He was born in Hull in 1884 to Jane and James Chambers, in 1891 he was living with his mother listed as a widow at James Place, new George Street, Hull. Living with them was his sister younger Mary Ann, his grandmother Mary Ann Layden and his uncle John Layden. John married Florence Davis at Beverley Minster on 1 Apr 1907. They had three children, Dorothy born 1908 (died in 1911) Alexanda James born 1912 and Edna May born 1915 just before John enlisted
On 16 Oct 1918 whilst onboard HMS Ruby he succumbed to double pneumonia and was buried in Brindisi Cemetery on the Adriatic coast in the region of Puglia, Italy
At the time of his death his family were living at Mill House, Grovehill Road, Beverley. The Beverley Guardian reported his death in Nov 1918 and in Nov 1919 in the memoriam column his wife and children remembered him with the words, “He sleeps with England’s heroes In the watchful care of God”
John is remembered on the Holme Church Lane, Roll of Honour and on the War Memorial in Hengate
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |