J/27366 BOY SEAMAN 1ST CLASS
WALTER BENJAMIN ADAMSON
H.M.S. HAWKE
LOST AT SEA 15TH OCTOBER 1914
AGED 17 YEARS
Walter was the first and youngest of the Halesworth War Dead. Born in the town on the 6th November 1897, the second son of Samuel a brewers labourer and his wife Florence (née Watson) he went onto attend the Halesworth Boys School until the age of fourteen, when having completed his education he found work locally as a sack mender employed by Dennington and Co Ltd sack, rope and tent manufacturers of London Road. It is no doubt he found the work menial and possibly finding his older brother Samuel’s stories of life at sea exciting.
In August 1913 Walter left the family home at No. 19 Chediston Street to join the Royal Navy enlisting as J/27366 Boy Seaman 2nd Class, he first attended H.M.S. Ganges, the Boy’s Training School at Shotley in Suffolk. Whilst there although described as a quiet lad he soon began to show great promise so much so that he was one of the twenty top students to receive their posting with the rank of Boy 1st class. On the 15th April 1914 he joined his first and only ship the Edgar Class Cruiser H.M.S. Hawke launched in March 1891 by 1914 she was now considered rather old for a modern ship of the line.
At the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 his ship was part of the Home Fleet patrolling the North Sea. Thereon the 15th October whilst in company with her sister ship H.M.S. Theseus she was torpedoed by the German Submarine U-9. The Hawke sank in just a few minutes taking with her the Captain, twenty-six officers and four hundred and ninety-seven men and boys including poor Walter. The Hawke was the latest sinking attributed to the U-9 having just a month previously accounted for three other British cruisers in the space of an hour.
After his loss Walter’s parents would have heard the sad news of his death at their new home at No. 63 London Road on the 23rd October 1914.
As with the rest of his shipmates lost that day Walter is now remembered on the Chatham Memorial to the missing, unveiled in October 1924.
Due to his young age and the fact that his father was still alive, his parents would not have received any pension for their loss, although they were entitled to receive his medal entitlement of the 1915 Star medal trio and memorial plaque and scroll.
Today the British War and Victory medals are in a private collection. The location of the others are unknown.