BORN HULL 06/12/1895. SON OF HORATIO & MARY ELIZABETH WILSON, AT 75 BRIGHT STREET, HOLDERNESS ROAD. (NAVAL RECORDS.ADDRESS). A COAL HEAVER AND LABOURER. ENLISTED IN THE ROYAL NAVY ON 02/07/1915. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT 7 INCHES TALL, BROWN HAIR, BLUE EYES, SCAR ON RIGHT EYEBROW. SERVED ON HMS ‘BRITANNIA’ HE DIED ON WOUNDS IN GIBRALTA, ON 10/11/1918. HE RECEIVED THE WOUNDS ON THE 09/10/1918, WHEN THE SHIP WAS TORPEDOED. HE DIED A DAY BEFORE THE WAR ENDED, AGED 22.
BROTHER TO MINNIE, MARY ANN, MAY, HORATIO, ROBERT, BENNETT AND SIDNEY.
HMS Britannia; King Edward VII class battleship; Built in 1904 at the Portsmouth Navy Dockyard; 16.350 tons; 453.7x78x26.7 ft.; 18.000 i.h.p. ; 18.9 knots; triple expansion engines. On November 9th, 1918, the battleship HMS Britannia was steaming towards Gibraltar in company of two destroyers, when she was torpedoed by the German U-boot UB-50 (Cdr. H. Kukat). Two torpedoes missed her, but the third one struck her amidships and made the cordite explode. 40 lost their lives in the explosion. Most of the crew was saved, as it took her 3 hours to sink, off Cape Trafalgar.
OTHER HULL CASUALTIES ON HMS ‘BRITANNIA’ WERE:-
BROWN, ALBERT (34), Stoker 1st Class (no. K/25208), H.M.S. Britannia, Royal Navy, 09/11/1918, Son of John and Jane Brown, of 8, York Avenue, St. Mark’s St., Hull, England; husband of Gertrude Brown, of Oakville, Ontario, Canada, Memorial: Portsmouth Naval Memorial
WILSON, THOMAS (22), Stoker 1st Class (no. SS/117286), H.M.S. Britannia, Royal Navy, 10/11/1918, Son of Horatio and Mary Elizabeth Wilson, of 15, Hume St., Holderness Rd., Hull, Memorial: Gibraltar (North Front) Cemetery.
