Training ship Cornwall Purfleet COMPLETED THANK YOU

[Anne in OZ]

Hello everyone.

I have recently found out that my great uncle was 1 of 16 boys killed when a steam tug collided with a sailing cutter belonging to the training ship Cornwall on the river Thames Purfleet 30 / 8 / 1915. 

I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a memorial plaque or something in the area which commemorates this tragic event?

Thanks
Anne

[Barry1936]

I & my family are from that area but I do not recall ever seeing or hearing of a memorial.  I have always found the Thurrock Library & Museum staff very helpfull.  (http://www.thurrock-community.org.uk/council/libraries/local/content.php?page=localhistory and http://www.thurrock-community.org.uk/council/heritage/museum/).   They have a good local studies department including an archive of the local newspaper (Essex & Thurrock Gazette, formerly Grays & Tilbury Gazette). There is also an active Local History Society (http://www.thurrock-community.org.uk/council/heritage/content.php?page=heritage_groups#c01) and a Purfleet Heritage centre (http://www.thurrock-community.org.uk/council/heritage/content.php?page=heritage_groups#c05)

Good luck
Barry

[phorne2090]

Hello Anne,

I found your inquiry about your great uncle whilst doing my own research into the disaster that day.

What I can tell you is that in St. Celements Church, West Thurrock, Essex there is a communal plot to the victims.

The tombstone reads:

IN MEMORY OF THE OFFICER AND BOYS OF H.M. TRAINING SHIP CORNWALL WHO LOST THERE LIVES AT PURFLEET ON 30 AUG 1915
Mr. EDWARD FRANCIS LANE OFFICER-CHARGE
ERNEST BEARSLY 17                   THOMAS LEADER 17
FREDERICK BURNISTON 16         HENRY LEE 16
JAMES CHURCH 16                      CYRIL MANN 14
CHARLES CLEWS 16                    RICHARD MILLARD 17
WILLIAM EVANS 16                     WILLIAM ROWLANDS 18
CHARLES GIPP 14                       WILLIAM SMITH 15
WILLIAM HILLYER 16                  WALTER TOWNSEND 16
HENRY JESSOP 13                       ARTHUR YOUNG 14

I have searched the internet on the incident and contacted West Thurrock History Society and there is no record or knowledge of what happened that day.
There seems to be no recorded archives apart from the death certificates. The officer Edward Francis Lane death certificate states drowning through a collision with an unknown steam tug.
It's strange to me that the day after 17 people drowned at Purfleet. there is a documentation of a primary school being opened locally. Also whilst the UK was at war with Germany, Zeppelin Airships bombing the locality and a record of this. Possibly government censorship
may have been behind it.

Regards

[charlotteCH]

phorne, Welcome to rootschat and what a great first post- so full of info and such a help to Anne...


charlotte

[Anne in OZ]

Hi Barry, thanks for the links.

Hi Phorne, thanks for your post and the information.  Since my first post on this topic I have found a great deal of information re this tragic event.

It may please you as it did me to know that the boys and their CPO where "sent off" with much ado. Approx 3000 people attended the burial, the funeral procession was 1 mile long and the streets where lined with people. 

The cutter was called ALERT, the steam tug was EMPRESS.

I am presently writing a report re the accident using all the information I have so far collected. I would love a photo of the tombstone if you have one.

If I can help you anymore please email me privately.

Cheers
Anne In OZ

[phorne2090]

Hello again Anne in Oz

Wow, Where did you get all that info? There is no record of anything over here. I am suspicious that there's scensorship issues in the past which has eliminated any access to records of the incident in the UK.

I spoke to Susan Yates from the West Thurrock History Society yesterday, and like myself she came up with a blank on the incident.
She did visit the graveyard and said there is another tombstone to the victims, I will check that out next week and take a photo of it.

The only reference that I found was on a site http://www.discovergravesham.couk/gravesend-chronology/1910-1916.html which confirmed that "17 boys on T S Cornwall drowned, when there cutter collided witha tug near Purfleet" couldn't even get that right, it was sixteen boys and their ofiicer!

Regarding photos there no problem there, what I have will give you a wider picture i.e. tombstones, church,  Thames river etc. That can be sent on a cd/rom.

I would like to see that your great uncle and all those who died on 30 August 1915 are not forgotten, and that a memorial of some sort can be erected in West Thurrock, or at least their is recognition that this disaster happened.

I hope that we can correspond, my e-mail address is (*)  hope to here from you soon.

Regards Peter, East London

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[gospers4]

Hi anne in Oz.... I to had a relative aboard this ship, William Hillyer...wondering if you can help with info. cheers

[mick1]

I have just been reading about the memorial for those who died on the cutter from the training ship cornwell at Purfleet. I found this as I was checking to see if there was a memorial. I wrote about the disaster in my book Front Line Thames last year. I am now revisiting the disaster for another book. I have found a number of references to the disatser in national newspapers of the time if anyone is still interested.
Mick1

[copper john]

Hi fellow TS Cornwall researchers, on my great uncle William Gorham death cert.it states-he died on board the TS Cornwall Sept. 5th 1900 from Enteric Fever=Typhoid fever. I have no records of this relly as he disappeared of any records around but not in the 1900 census, but my Dad always said that William was playing cricket in the country got thirsty and drank from either a ditch/pond or stream then died as a result, no details ever surfaced until now, I have an inquiry out with Greenwich but nothing back yet. William is buried at St Clements Church at West Thurrock, can any one  help with any details here plus advise if William was interred in a Paupers grave.

Cheers Copper John Western Australia