Albert Maddock - Acting Engine Room Artificer 4th Class

Albert Robert Woolley Maddock was born on the 7th December 1875 in Nottingham. He appears on the 1881 census as living at 27 Palin Street in Radford, Nottingham. He was living with his parents and several brothers and sisters. By 1891 Albert is aged 16 and is still residing at 27 Palin Street along with his parents, a brother, two sisters and their three children. There are nine people in the house in total. Albert's occupation at this time is given as a blacksmith.

Ten years later at the time of the 1901 census the family are still at 27 Palin Street but Albert's father has died, his mother is still alive and has re-married a man named John Howard who's occupation is given as a Lace Maker. Albert is the only one of the children still living in the house and he is now married to Annie Maddock nee Pickard who had worked as a domestic servant prior to getting married. They were married in 1897 and had two children named Robert and Annie.

By 1911 Albert has left Palin Street with Annie and their children Robert, Annie and Elizabeth who was born in 1901 and moved to 64 Burntfold(?) in North Nottingham. Albert's profession is still that of a blacksmith however it is also entered onto the census record that he is a "Machine Builder"

Albert joined the Royal Navy on 22nd February 1915 for "the duration of hostilities" He was at this time 39 years old. His Service Record describes him as 5' 6" tall with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He has no tattoos but has several scars on his left arm and one on his left leg. His occupation is given as a Lace Machine Fitter which presumably means he is working in the lace industry as a machine engineer. His experience with machines must have made him an ideal choice to work as an Engine Room Artificer. After three months training at one of the navy's shore bases Albert joined his first ship HMS Monarch on 29th May 1915. Monarch was an Orion Class battleship launched in March 1911. Albert remained on Monarch until October 1915 when he returned to shore for a further three months at a depot/ training establishment.

Albert was next posted to HMS Defence on 30th January 1916. HMS Defence was a Minotaur Class Armoured Cruiser and was in fact the last armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy she was launched in April 1907. Defence was transferred to the Grand Fleet in January 1916.

HMS Defence

On the 31st May 1916 at the Battle of Jutland HMS Defence and HMS Warrior were part of the First Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet and spotted the leading elements of the German II Scouting Group. They opened fire but the range was too far to hit the German ships. Defence and Warrior then turned to port in an attempt to close with the German ships but cut across in front of the lead British Battlecruiser HMS Lion causing Lion to veer away in order to avoid a collision. Soon they spotted the German light cruiser Wiesbaden which had been disabled earlier on in the action and approached to within 5,500 yards and were preparing to open fire when they were in turn spotted by the German Battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger and four other German Battleships who opened fire on Defence and Warrior.

Commander George Von Hasse was the Chief Gunnery Officer on the German Battlecriuser SMS Derfflinger he witnessed the destruction of HMS Defence:

"At 8.15pm 31 May 1916 we received a heavy fire. Lieutenant Commander Hausser, who had been firing at a torpedo boat with our secondary battery, asked me "Sir, is this cruiser with the four funnels a German or an English cruiser?" I directed my periscope at the ship and examined it. In the grey light the colour of the German and the English ships looked almost exactly the same. The cruiser was not at all far from us. She had four funnels and two masts exactly like our Rostock who was with us. "It is certainly English" exclaimed Lieutenant Commander Hausser; "May I fire?" "Yes - fire away!" I said. I became convinced that it was a large English ship. The secondary guns were aimed at the new target and Hausser commanded "69 hundred!" At the moment in which he was about to order "Fire!" something horrible, something terrific happened. The English ship which I meanwhile supposed to be an old English battle cruiser, broke asunder and there was an enormous explosion. Black smoke and pieces of the ship whirled upward, and flame swept through the entire ship, which then disappeared before our eyes beneath the water. Nothing was left to indicate the spot where a moment before a proud ship had been fighting, except an enormous cloud of smoke. According to my opinion, the ship was destroyed by the fire of the ship just ahead of us - the Luetzow, the flagship of Admiral Hipper. The whole thing lasted only a few seconds and then we engaged with a new target. The destroyed ship was the Defence, one of the older armoured cruisers of the same type as the Black Prince which was sunk by gunfire the following night. She displaced 14, 800 tons, was armed with six 23.4 centimetre and ten 15.2 centimetre guns and had a crew of 700 men. Of the crew not a single soul was rescued. The ship was blown into atoms and every living soul was destroyed by the explosion. I shall never forget the sight I saw through my periscope in all its gruesomeness."

The last known photograph of HMS Defence taken five minutes before she was sunk

Defence was hit by two salvos from the German ships which caused her aft magazines for the 9.2" guns to explode the fire raced through the ammunition passages and spread to the magazines for her 7.5" guns which detonated. The ship exploded at 18:20 and sank within minutes with the loss of all her 903 crew.

For some reason or other Albert was not aboard HMS Defence at the Battle of Jutland. Perhaps he "missed the boat" as the Grand Fleet hurriedly put to sea on the 31st May to meet the German High Seas Fleet. He may have been on leave or sick and was being treated on shore. However he is a very lucky man as had he been on board his ship that day he would have been killed with the rest of the crew.

Albert didn't go to sea again and his next two postings with the Royal Navy were at shore based training establishments. Throughout his four years service in the Royal Navy his character had always been described as "Very Good" he was discharged in February 1919. For his services during the First World War Albert Maddock was awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Allied Victory Medal.

It would appear that Albert's eldest son Robert also served during the First World War but he joined the army serving in the Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment as a Private with the number 28287. He may have been wounded.

Albert died early in 1952 aged 77.

Albert's Allied Victory Medal

 

George Wells - Able Seaman

On the 29th June 1876 George Wells commenced his service with the Royal Navy at Portsmouth. He was sent to HMS St.Vincent which was a 120 gun ship of the line built in 1815. It was of course obsolete by this time and had been converted into a training ship for boys in 1862 and was permanently moored at Haslar. George was born on 20th May 1861 in Brighton, Sussex. He was 15 years old when he joined the Royal Navy and stood 4' 10" this would rise to 5' 3" when he commenced his adult service three years later. George was described as having brown hair, brown eyes and a sallow complexion. His Service Record notes that he had a "bracelet tattoo on each wrist". He spent nearly two years on St.Vincent and left with his character being described as "Very Good".

In May 1878 George served on HMS Monarch the first British battleship to carry her guns in turrets. The guns themselves had a calibre of 12" which was large for the time but would eventually become commonplace in the early twentieth century. George spent a year on Monarch and passed from being a Boy Sailor to start his adult service rated as Ordinary Seaman. After a short spell on HMS Cruiser, another training ship, he rejoined Monarch in November 1879 and spent the next two years aboard her. His character was described as "Very Good" from 1878 to 1881 when he left Monarch. He managed this despite having spent three days in "the cells" between 22nd December and 26th December 1881 for an unspecified offence.

Between April and December 1882 George served aboard HMS Minotaur. Launched in 1863 the Minotaur was the lead ship of her class. They were the longest single screw warships ever built and had five masts as well as a single steam engine powered by ten boilers. The ship was armed with a mixture of 7" and 9" guns.

HMS Minotaur

HMS Minotaur was dispatched to Egypt in 1882 as part of the British invasion force assembled to put down a nationalist uprising against Tewfik Pasha The Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. An anti-Christian riot in the city of Alexandria saw more than 50 Europeans killed and this led to an ultimatum being issued ordering the nationalists to cease arming and fortifying the town. The ultimatum was ignored and Alexandria was bombarded during the 11 - 13th July by warships of the Royal Navy. HMS Minotaur arrived the day after the fighting off the coast of Alexandria and did not see any action. George Wells received the Egypt Medal with no clasp for his services on board HMS Minotaur during the Egyptian war.

HMS Minotaur - deck gun taken during the 1860's

After a couple of shore postings George was serving on HMS Penelope, which incidentally had taken part in the bombardment of Alexandria, for two years until February 1887. He attended more training at the shore base Excellent which was the Royal Navy's Gunnery School at Portsmouth before spending a year on HMS Kingfisher between February 1888 and February 1889. This year was spent serving out of Zanzibar conducting anti - slavery patrols along the African coast.

Galley Crew - HMS Kingfisher 

 

 

A short stint on the paddle vessel HMS Sphinx followed and then it was back to the Naval Gunnery School at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth in March 1889. It was while he was stationed here that on the 25th July 1889 George Wells fell overboard from a steam launch and drowned at Spithead. His Service Record notes he was "Discharged Dead" on that date.George's character had been rated as "Very Good" for the 13 years he served in the Royal Navy. He received the Egypt and Sudan medal with no clasp and the Khedive's Star which was a medal issued by the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan to all British soldiers and sailors who served in that campaign.

George Wells' Egypt & Sudan Medal dated 1882