An overlooked deed of WW1 bravery

Apropos of my earlier blog on the misuse of the word 'hero', I've been irritated this week by a well known supermarket beginning with T applying the term to those brave souls who risk all in passing your goods across the barcode scanner and taking your cash. They go over the top for your tenner! And then, as if to rub salt into my wounds, I was assailed over the weekend by a coffee shop asking me to let their barista heroes prepare me a cappuccino.  

Let's go back to first principles and remind ourselves of what the dictionary tells us. Bear this definition in mind as I tell you a true tale.

HERO: A person distinguished by courage and admired for brave deeds. A person who has noble qualities and has performed selfless acts. Regarded as a model or an ideal for others due to heroic action.

Regular readers will be aware that I'm commemorating those named on our local WW1 memorial on the centenary of their deaths. One such will be Lancelot Walters who was killed when his ship, HMS Partridge, was sunk on December 12th 1917. As well as his name appearing on our two war memorials, he is also commemorated on a separate, and easily missed, plaque, just to the right of the altar in the church. The wording on the plaque is rather intriguing and reads: ‘.......who lost his life in action on Dec 12th 1917 in the North Sea in spite of a gallant attempt to save him by Sub Lieut Aubrey Egerton Grey R.N.’ What was the story behind these few words? Who was Aubrey Grey and what did he do to merit such praise?

After enough research to make me feel rather pleased with myself, I managed to piece together the following. In late 1917 HMS Partridge was one of a number of ships, based at Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, being used to escort convoys to and from Norway. On 11th December 1917 the destroyer left port in the company of the destroyer HMS Pellew and four armed trawlers, escorting a convoy of six merchant ships. At 11.45 am on 12th December the convoy was south west of Bjorne Fjord when enemy ships were sighted to the north. The convoy was ordered to scatter and the Partridge and the Pellew prepared to engage the enemy in the form of four destroyers. The Partridge was quickly hit, and with her main steam-pipe severed, was rendered helpless and a sitting target. After being struck by another torpedo her Captain gave orders for her to be abandoned. Despite this order, Lieutenants Grey and Walters were determined to continue the fight. Manning a torpedo tube they fired one which hit an enemy destroyer but failed to explode. Soon afterwards Grey was wounded in the thigh. The two Lieutenants then made for a boat but this capsized casting both into the water. Grey, although wounded, then performed an unselfish act of bravery. He swam to help Walters who was exhausted, and although badly wounded himself in the leg, swam with him for more than a quarter of a mile and placed him on the only vacant place on a raft. Seeing that his own added weight would endanger the raft, he then swam away and was eventually picked up by a German destroyer in a very exhausted state. Remember that this was December in the North Sea: there was a heavy sea running at the time and the weather was intensely cold. For this gallant act of life saving, Lieutenant Grey was awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Silver Medal and was subsequently awarded the Society’s Stanhope Gold Medal in 1919 for his action.

HMS Partridge in a pre-WW1 photograph

A photograph, from an enemy ship, of HMS Partridge taken shortly after she was hit.

A press clipping of the award of the RHS's medal.

 

After another piece of self-satisfying research, I managed to contact Lieutenant Grey’s son, Aubrey, who says his father spent the remainder of the war in a POW in Kiel but rejoined the navy as soon as he could thereafter. He also added a fascinating addendum to the episode. In 1936 during the Coronation of Edward VIII, there was a review of ships of all nations anchored in the Solent and Spithead. His father was asked to a dinner to entertain the captains of some twenty foreign ships. One of them was a Captain Ruge, who told Grey that he had sunk HMS Partridge! They became friends (Ruge was not a Nazi sympathiser) and exchanged letters before and after WW2. The younger Aubrey was not aware of the plaque and although he is now in his mid 80s, he was able to visit the church recently and see for himself the dedication to his father. It was quite a moving experience for all of us present.

The younger Aubrey Grey at the plaque commemorating his father's bravery.

As a footnote to the above, Aubrey Grey junior sent the story of his father to the Daily Torygraph in response to a request for unknown WW1 exploits. They published it and, far be it that I should accuse the author of plagiarism, it is strange that many phrases I'd used elsewhere appeared in the Torygraph's piece. Putting that personal niggle to one side, since Aubrey Grey's act became apparent to me I've put him firmly in the pantheon of heroes, even if he probably couldn't prepare a decent cup of coffee or pack my grocery bags properly.