BORN HULL 1897. ORPHANED AT AN EARLY AGE. HE LIVED WITH GRANDPARENTS, HENRY & ABBY EVANS, AND HIS SISTER MAUD, AT PATRINGTON AND 2 IVY TERRACE, BARNSLEY STREET, HULL (CWGC ADDRESS). BEFORE THE WAR HE WAS AN ELECTRICIAN WITH MESSRS. JAMESON’S, CANNING STREET, HULL. HE JOINED THE ROYAL NAVY AS A STOKER, ON 12/10/1914. HE WAS LOST AT SEA, AROUND THE DOVER STRAITS, ON 26/10/1916, AGED 20. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON THE 21ST APRIL 1917, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. *
HMS Flirt was a Star-class destroyer (three-funnelled C-type). She was launched by Palmers in 1897 and served in the great war patrolling the Strait of Dover as part of the Dover Patrol. Her service came to an end when on 27 October 1916 during the Battle of Dover Strait she was torpedoed and sunk by German destroyers. 60 crew were lost.
DITCH, JAMES WILLIAM HENRY (20), Stoker 1st Class (no. K/23281), HMS Flirt, Royal Navy, †26/10/1916, Brother of Florence Maud Ditch, of 27, Steynburg Street, New Bridge Rd., Holderness Rd., Hull, Memorial: Portsmouth Naval Memorial
For details on the action in which he lost his life, please see this link
https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?2932
