Stoker 2nd class Royal Navy: Service number k/37221: British War Medal, Victory Medal.
The 1911 census shows Albert working as a Waggoner at Bishop Burton; the family had been brought up at Halfpenny gate cottage on the Risby estate and had lived in Walkington for most of the nineteenth century. He attended school in Little Weighton and received a prize at school which is still in the possession of his niece, Brenda Wilson. Albert was the son of Henry (Harry) Collinson and Charlotte Collinson, brother of Annie and Amos and he was married to Audrey who lived in Soham Fen Cambridgeshire. He had lived in Soham Fen for some time before he enlisted in the Navy. In 1916 he underwent training at Chatham until the New Year when he undertook duties on H.M.S. Vanguard. The full truth about the loss of H.M.S. Vanguard was not made public until long after the war, but it is regarded as Britain’s worst sea disaster in home waters. Report into the loss of H.M.S. Vanguard 9th July, 1917.
Just before midnight on Monday 9th July, 1917 the battleship H.M.S. Vanguard blew up, taking 800 of her crew with her. It was an explosion in one of the two magazines which served the amid ship turrets. The cause of the explosion was not identified but cordite had over heated to such a level as to ignite. A report at the time said:- ‘H.M.S. Vanguard, Scapa Flow, North Scotland at 11.20pm on 9th July a great explosion occurred in the midst of the Grand Fleet, a terrible detonation took place, lighting the whole fleet as if it were daylight. There was a crack and one of the big boats went sky high with a crew of 900 men. All searchlights were switched on immediately, but not a thing was seen.’
Albert Collinson had previously taken part in the battle of Jutland in May 1916. He left a widow and young daughter and is commemorated on the Soham Fen Memorial, Cambridgeshire and on the Chatham Memorial, Kent. The WW1 Naval Memorials are at Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth and are inscribed:- ‘In honour of the Navy and the abiding memory of these ranks and ratings of this port who laid down their lives in defence of the Empire and have no known grave’.
