26735D DECK HAND ROBERT JOHN ETHERIDG
H.M.S. IPHIGENIA ROYAL NAVY RESERVE
WHO DIED BY DROWNING
3RD DECEMBER 1915
AGE 42 YEARS
Robert was one of the oldest men with connections to the town to have lost his life during in the Great War. He had been born in the nearby village of Blythburgh on the 20th December 1873, being the sixth child born to William, a warrener gamekeeper, and his wife Sarah (née Fuller). Robert first attended the village school in January 1880. He then went on to complete his education by October 1886, leaving at the young age of just thirteen years. It is believed that, through his father’s contacts, he found work in the local fishing industry where he remained for the next ten or so years. On the 19th April 1897, he married his local sweetheart, Kate Crawford. Now no doubt wishing for a more stable home life away from the sea, he managed to find work with the Great Eastern Railway Company based at Halesworth station where he was employed as a carman which involved the delivery of parcels to local businesses and homes that had been transported by rail to the station. Typically he would have carried out his deliveries by the use of a two-wheeled trap pulled by a single horse.
The birth of his and Kate’s first of three daughters, Gladys May, was registered in Halesworth in 1899. Two years later at the time of the census the family were living at 7 Jubilee Cottages in Loam Pit Lane. Over the following decade Robert remained in the employ of the G.E.R. working in and around the town, but prior to the outbreak of war he was sent to work for some time at the Ipswich main line station, while Kate and her three daughters remained at home.
On the 1st March 1915 while working in Ipswich and no doubt wishing to do his bit for King and Country, Robert volunteered to serve in the Royal Navy Reserve, His choice of service would have been possibly due to his age now being over forty but also taking into account his previous eleven or so years spent at sea with the East Coast fishing fleet. On his enlistment he joined the Yarmouth Division of the R.N.R. with the service number of 26735D and the rating (rank) of Deck Hand. After training Robert joined the crew of H.M.S. Iphigenia which at that time was based in the Naval Dockyard at Chatham, Kent. Originally launched in 1891 to serve as an Apollo Class Cruiser, by 1915 the ship had undergone various alterations and changes to her role finally being rigged as a Depot Ship to support the Royal Navy ships operating in the northern White Sea where they were aiding the Russians in their fight against the common foe, the Germans.
On the 18th October 1915, the Iphigenia sailed from Sheerness bound for the northern Russian port of Alexandrousk which she would eventually operate from. After some ten days at sea, sailing through atrocious weather conditions, they were forced to put into the port of Yukanskie before moving on to the docks at Archangel where they loaded further stores and coal for the boilers before returning to Yukanskie where the crew spent several days clearing snow and ice from the upper area of the ship. At 12.30 on the 3rd December 1915 the Iphigenia set sail on the final leg of her journey north. The ship’s log for that day shows that at 8.15pm Robert, who was a member of a working party, fell overboard. The ship immediately stopped engines and all the search lights were switched on to try to locate him in the water but with no success. The log also reports that, due to the sea state, it was too rough to lower a boat, so after just fifteen minutes the search was called off and the ship resumed its course. Sadly Robert’s body was never found. Today Robert is remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial to the Missing, while in Suffolk his name is to be found on both the Halesworth and Holton War Memorials. (See below)
The news of his loss had been delivered to his wife in a letter from the General Register and Records Office of Shipping and Seaman dated the 6th December 1915 with his death announced in the Halesworth Times on the 14th December.
During the following two years Kate received gratuities totalling £5.0s.0d (£5.00p) with a weekly pension of £1.3s.0d (£1.15p) for her three daughters. This sum decreased when each of her children reached the age of sixteen years.
As well as the financial awards Kate would have been entitled to claim Robert’s medal entitlement of the 1915 Star Trio with the named memorial plaque and scroll.
The location of these awards is unknown.
The Holton War Memorial with Robert’s name inscribed.