The Royal British Legion
Staple Branch
Charity Number 219279
Alfred Palmer
Died on 9th July 1917 Aged 17
RN HMS Vanguard
Alfred Palmer was born on the 2nd July, 1900 in Sandwich where his father, Arthur, was a Police Sergeant. His elder three brothers and one sister were born in Mongeham, Wingham and Addisham respectively and his baby brother also born in Sandwich. It seems that policemen, in these early days of village policing, were moved around a lot presumably, in case they became too friendly with the locals!
By 1911 the family had moved to Staple and were living in Barnsole and Alfred’s father is now a ‘Police Pensioner’. The house was probably on the corner of Barnsole Road and Fleming Road. We can’t tell whether he came to Staple as village policeman and then retired or whether he moved here on retirement.
Either way, he seems to have retained some official influence as his census return also shows four ‘Single farm workers’ as ‘persons enumerated by police’ (this usually meant itinerant or homeless workers living rough in barns or sheds around the village).
His sister and two elder brothers had, by then, already left home. William, the eldest, was lodging with another ‘Police Pensioner’ and his family in Deal, presumably some ex colleague of his father’s, where he was working as a Railway Clerk but his brother Charles, who was 15, in the 1911 census, is in a cast of 218 Sea Apprentices on Training Ship ‘Warspite’ on the Thames at Greenhithe.
After a brief spell as a Carter/Labourer, Alfred followed his brother into the Navy, joining as an Apprentice. January 1915 five months after the outbreak of war finds him on HMS Ganges starting his training. By March he moves to HMS Impregnable where he advances to Boy Class 1 and in June of 1915 he starts his training as a Telegrapher. He is posted to HMS Vernon as a Boy Telegrapher for a month before he is finally sent to HMS Vanguard where, apart from a short month on HMS Pembroke, he stayed until the end. On 26th April 1917 which the Navy has as his 18th birthday (as he was born on 2nd July 1900 they were 1 year and 3 months out!) he signed on for 12 years and was promoted from Boy to Ordinary Seaman. He was 5’1” with fair hair and grey eyes. His chest measured 33inches! His record doesn’t say whether that was breathing in or out! He had a fresh (outdoor) complexion and a scar on the left side of his cheek.
HMS Vanguard was a St Vincent class Dreadnaught Battleship launched in 1909
Just before the outbreak of war HMS Vanguard moved, with the Grand Fleet, to Scapa Flow. On 31st May 1916, with Alfred aboard, she sailed with Admiral Jellicoe’s Battle Fleet as one of 24 Dreadnaughts and was present at the Battle of Jutland. She took part in the action against the head of the German High Seas Fleet and against German Battlecruisers.
It is not known if she scored any hits but she, herself, was undamaged and suffered no casualties. She returned with the fleet to Scapa Flow. No other actions are recorded.
On the afternoon of 9th July 1917 the ships crew had been exercising, practising the routine for abandoning ship She returned to Scapa Flow at about 18.30. There is no record of anyone detecting anything amiss. Just before midnight, suddenly and without warning, HMS Vanguard exploded, sinking almost instantly. There were only two survivors from a crew of 806.
The Court of Enquiry heard from many witnesses on nearby ships. They reported an initial small explosion followed, after a brief interval, by two much larger explosions. A great deal of debris had been thrown out by the explosion a huge section of plating measuring 6 feet by 5 feet landed on HMS Bellerophon. This was found to have come from the central dynamo room, reinforcing the evidence that the explosion was in the central part of the ship. The Board’s conclusion was that a fire had started in a magazine when a raised temperature had caused a spontaneous ignition of cordite, spreading to one of the main magazines, which then exploded.
In terms of loss of life, the destruction of Vanguard remains the most catastrophic accidental explosion in the history of the United Kingdom, and one of the worst accidental losses of the Royal Navy.
Some bodies were recovered but most of the eight hundred and four men who were lost, lie, with their ship, on the seabed at Scapa Floe.
The site of the sinking of HMS Vanguard is a designated War Grave