Remembrance Day 2013
“Show you remember on
the 11th November”
On the 11 November, 95 years ago, at 11am World War 1 known
as The Great War came to an end. At 11am
on 11th November each year there is a two minute silence. Millions of civilians and military personnel lost their lives in the conflict. Due to the fighting in the fields of Northern France and Flanders where the poppies grew in abundance, the poppy was used as a symbol of respect for those that lost their lives.
My great uncle lost his life in The Great War and
information on his death is shown following -
George Henry Ingall was the son of Arthur Charles Burton
Ingall and Annie Isabel Housden. He was
born in 1917 in Edmonton, Middlesex. He
joined the Navy whilst still young and then enlisted for service with the Navy
as an Able Seamen when the world war broke out.
George was assigned to the HMS Duchess.
The “Duchess” was heading home after being docked at a port
in the Far East along with other “D” Class destroyers.
They were heading home at high speed when they were told to escort the
battleship “Barham” home to English waters.
The “Barham” was a huge ship of 31,000 tonnes and dwarfed
the destroyers escorting her. An hour
away from docking in England the “Barham” hit the “Duchess” and the “Duchess” flipped
over. Many of her crew at the time were
below deck and sleeping and so the crew had no time to gather lifeboats. Many perished in the oil-slicked waters. Only 23 crew survived from the “Duchess”. Sadly George Henry Ingall did not survive and
died at the young age of 22 years on the 12 December 1939 just after the war
broke out.
George is commemorated at the Chatham Naval Memorial.
“Lest we never forget”