Harrison, Walter Stanley

BORN HULL 20/02/1894. SON OF JOHN AND ELEANOR HARRISON. HIS SISTER FANNY LIVED AT 1 BRUNSWICK AVENUE, FRANKLIN STREET, HULL (CWGC ADDRESS). HE WAS A SINGLE MAN WHO WORKED AS A SAW MILLER BEFORE THE WAR. HE JOINED THE ROYAL NAVY ON 03/08/1912. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT 4.5 INCHES TALL, 33.5 INCH CHEST, BROWN HAIR, BROWN EYES, TATOOS ON BOTH ARMS. DROWNED ON HMS ‘OPAL’, SUNK 12/01/1918, AGED 24. HIS NAME IS LISTED ON THE ST CHARLES CHURCH MEMORIAL, HULL AND THE PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL
HMS Opal, was an Admiralty M class destroyer, which served in the First World War following her construction at Sunderland in 1915. Attached to the 12th Destroyer Flotilla based with the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow, the Opal had an eventful short life, which ended tragically in shipwreck, when she was just two and a half years old. On the 12 January 1918 Opal, joined her sister ship HMS Narborough and the light cruiser HMS Boadicea, in a night patrol, to hunt German auxiliary warships, suspected to be laying mines on the Scottish coast. By 5.30pm the weather had deteriorated to such an extreme degree that the destroyers were in danger of swamping and foundering and visibility was near zero. Fearing that her companions might sink, the Boadicea ordered the Opal and Narborough back to Scapa Flow while she continued alone. For the next four hours Opal regularly sent reports indicating her course and intention to return, but at 9.27pm, a garbled message stating have run aground was received, followed by silence. The weather was so atrocious that no vessels could be despatched until the following morning, and it was two days before the Opal was found, battered, broken and empty on the Clett of Crura. The Narborough was found in a similar position nearby. One survivor was later located on a small islet, and he related that the ships had been sailing a regular slow course making frequent soundings and radio reports, but had suddenly crashed headlong in to the rocks, probably due to a navigation error by the Opal´s captain. Both wrecks were abandoned and broken up by the sea over the next few weeks taking the bodies of both crews, bar the single survivor, with them.