Tuesday 19 November 2013


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”

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