Henry (Harry) Arthur Widdicombe
Family
Henry Arthur Widdicombe, known as Harry, was born in Dartmouth on 12 December 1877 and baptised at St Petrox with St Barnabas on 20 January 1878. He was the second child of Samuel Widdicombe, a fisherman and mariner, and his wife Ellen Moses. Samuel was born in Buckfastleigh, Devon, but by the time of the 1871 Census had moved to Dartmouth, where he and his elder brother John were recorded as two of four apprentices working for John Williams, a Dartmouth fisherman.
Samuel married Ellen in 1873. She was a daughter of George Moses, master mariner. At the time of the 1871 Census she was working as live-in domestic servant to Catherine Tipper, the licensee of the Marine Tavern, in Lower Street - perhaps Samuel and Ellen met there. At the time of the 1881 Census, Samuel and Ellen were living in Bayards Cove and there were four children in the family, all baptised at St Petrox:
- Frederick born 24 Oct 1873, baptised 30 Nov 1873
- Ellen Elizabeth born 5 Feb 1876, baptised 5 March 1876
- Henry Arthur, as above
- Richard born 19 March 1880, baptised 9 May 1880
Samuel's occupation was described as "fisherman" or "mariner". Two further children were born to the couple, Florence Georgina on 28 March 1882, baptised on 1 Sept 1882; and Hilda, born on 6 April 1884, and baptised on 9 November 1884. However, by the time Harry was ten, his father Samuel had left the sea, perhaps due to ill health. Instead he became a gardener, being employed by Sir Thomas Freake at Warfleet House. On 29 May 1888, on his way to work, Samuel made a very sad discovery:
"On Tuesday morning, shortly before four o'clock, the body of Mr G H Moses, master mariner, of Kingswear, was found floating about five yards from the shore at Warfleet Creek, by his son in law, Samuel Widdicombe ..."
Samuel brought the body ashore and notified the police. As reported at the inquest, Ellen's father had been missing since 5 May. After eating with Samuel and Ellen, George Moses had been seen at the Marine Tavern at 9pm and then on the Quay at 10pm "going down to look over his boat, as he had some friends to take over to Kingswear". A search made after George's disappearance had failed to find anything except his boat, unmoored and missing a paddle, and his cap.
Directed by the coroner, the jury found a verdict of "Found dead in the water, but there was no evidence to show how he came there" (Totnes Times 2 June 1888). Samuel and Ellen's last child was born a few weeks later, on 7 July, and on 26 August 1888 was baptised Thomas George Moses Widdicombe, in commemoration of his grandfather.
Sadly this was not the only close bereavement suffered by Harry and his family. Samuel himself died on 15 April 1890, aged only 37, leaving Ellen with seven children to support, the youngest being not yet two. The older ones, including Harry, were soon at work. At the time of the 1891 Census, approximately a year later, the family were living at "Fen Top", Rockhill, Dartmouth. Ellen's occupation was "labouring", Frederick, aged 17, was also a labourer; Harry, aged only 13, worked as a gardener. Ellen Elizabeth, aged 16, lived far away, working as a domestic servant in Kensington, London. Richard, Florence and Hilda were at school; Thomas, the baby of the family, was still at home.
In contrast to irregular labouring work, joining the Royal Navy offered steady employment, a reasonable wage, and free food and accommodation. Both Frederick and Harry joined within days of each other in 1893. Harry joined the ratings' training establishment, HMS Impregnable. as a Boy Second Class on his sixteenth birthday, 12 October 1893, while Frederick signed up as a Stoker four days later and began life at the Stokers School in Devonport. Their youngest brother, Thomas, followed them into the Royal Navy in 1905.
Service
Harry's naval service record shows that on joining the Royal Navy he was 5ft 3¾ins tall with brown hair, brown eyes, and a "fresh" complexion. From HMS Impregnable he moved to HMS Boscawen, the Boys Training Ship at Portland, and on his eighteenth birthday in 1895, having grown a further two inches in height, signed up for 12 years and was rated Ordinary Seaman. Six weeks earlier he had been sent to HMS Empress of India - he now transferred, with the rest of her crew, to the new Majestic-class battleship HMS Magnificent, taking over as second flagship of the Channel Fleet. He remained in Magnificent until 31 May 1897.
Boer War and the Naval Brigade
His next ship was the cruiser HMS Barrosa, which took him far away from home waters to the Cape of Good Hope/West Coast of Africa station. Soon after joining her he was rated Able Seaman, on 30 September 1897. Two years later the Boer Republics of South Africa declared war on Britain and Barrosa was in a war zone.
As standing British forces were considerably outnumbered, a Naval Brigade was formed from Royal Marines and sailors from four naval ships currently in Cape Town - HMS Doris (flagship at Simonstown), HMS Monarch (guardship), HMS Powerful (homeward bound from China) and HMS Terrible (outward bound to China). The early months of the war saw the Boers scoring several significant successes, so Field Marshal Frederick Roberts was sent out to take over command of British forces from General Redvers Buller, along with huge reinforcements.
As soon as he arrived in Cape Town on 10 January 1900 Lord Roberts requested two further 4.7inch naval guns, with six officers and 59 men. These were chosen from HMS Doris and HMS Barrosa. The Queen's and King's South Africa Medal Roll lists 25 men from HMS Barrosa who were landed "at East London on 29 January 1900 for service in connexion with the Military Operations", one of whom was Harry. He nominated his mother Ellen, by then living in Newcomen Road, to receive the additional monthly allowance of 20s.
The Barrosa's gun was called "Sloper" and was mounted on a travelling carriage, quickly built in the dockyard; together with ammunition and other supply wagons, it was pulled by teams of oxen with African drivers. Moving the guns was difficult - in the words of one account:
"Our own long chased guns, white with dust, rolled along two abreast behind the labouring oxen, in front of each a bluejacket guide plodded wearily along, wading through the soft sand ... behind the guns were the limber numbers ... six on Sloper's ... holding grimly to the cross-bars ... at every yard an unevenness in the ground would jerk them from side to side as they clutched that steering pole and steadied it amidships, and unless their attention was of the keenest, an unavoided obstacle might bring the gun to a standstill and break the trek-chain, or one wheel or both might sink into an unnoticed hole, and the whole column behind be stopped ... whilst it was being dug out."
On 20 February 1900 the naval guns were brought into action in the attack on Boer General Cronje's camp at Paardeberg, which finally surrendered seven days later, the first major British victory in the war. British forces then moved to take Bloemfontein, the Boer capital; the naval guns were in action twice more, but there was now little resistance and Bloemfontein was occupied on 15 March for seven weeks. During this period the Naval Brigade was badly affected by enteric fever, with many sick and several deaths. The casualties meant the Brigade was reorganised into two sections, and it may be for this reason that Harry transferred to HMS Doris for five months from 1 May - 6 October 1900.
One section of the Brigade formed part of the British advance on Johannesburg and Pretoria, which fell on 30 May and 4 June. The other section, which included the detachment originally from HMS Barrosa, formed part of a force chasing remaining Boer forces under General De Wet. The British expected the war to end quickly, but instead the Boers turned to guerrilla warfare - the next few months saw continuous skirmishing in the south-western Transvaal as Boer Commandos attacked British communication and supply lines but evaded any large engagements, while De Wet remained elusive. Fighting continued even as the Transvaal province was annexed by Britain on 1 September 1900.
The Naval Brigade's involvement in the fighting ended on 2 October, when the guns were handed over to reinforcements from the Royal Garrison Artillery and the men returned to Simonstown and their ships by train. Since leaving Bloemfontein they had covered just under 800 miles in a succession of long and gruelling marches and had come into action on several occasions. Although accounts of the Naval Brigade's service are "upbeat", conditions were clearly very challenging throughout the nine months of Harry's service ashore.
Harry returned to HMS Barrosa until 24 May 1901, returning to the UK thereafter and being rated Leading Seaman on 12 July 1901. For his service in the Naval Brigade, he was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal, with four clasps.
Between the wars
After a period ashore in HMS Cambridge and HMS Defiance, for gunnery and torpedo training, Harry was posted to HMS Nile in Devonport on 11 June 1902. Following the Fleet Review for the coronation of Edward VII, he transferred along with the captain and the rest of the crew of HMS Nile to the battleship HMS Royal Oak, recommissioned on 16 February 1903. Harry was rated Petty Officer 2nd Class the following day. Royal Oak was part of the Home Fleet, becoming the second flagship in May 1904.
While serving in Royal Oak, Harry was promoted to Petty Officer 1st Class on 7 January 1905. Shortly after, Royal Oak paid off into the reserve and once again Harry was transferred along with the rest of the crew, this time to the battleship HMS Caesar, flagship of the Atlantic Fleet, where he remained until 4 December 1905. After another stint ashore, he returned to HMS Caesar, in the Home Fleet, on 28 May 1907, and in December, on his 30th birthday, signed on for a further ten years to complete his entitlement to superannuation.
After a series of short postings he was sent on 12 October 1908 to the battleship HMS New Zealand for nearly three years (she was renamed HMS Zealandia in December 1911, shortly after he left her); after qualifying as a Petty Officer (Torpedo) on 7 November 1911 another series of short postings followed until his appointment to the light cruiser HMS Newcastle, on the China and Pacific Station, on 17 October 1912. Harry was sent to Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where the ship recommissioned on 5 December 1912. To his experiences in South Africa, Harry now added extensive travel to places which he surely could scarcely have imagined during his Dartmouth boyhood.
By 1 February 1913 the ship was in Hong Kong on her way to Shanghai, where she arrived on 9 February to join the rest of the fleet on the China Station. Newspapers reported an entertainment for the ships on the station given by the crew of HMS Monmouth, with contributions from the crew of the German cruiser Scharnhorst, part of the German East Asia Squadron (amongst HMS Monmouth's crew at this time was William Blank, of Dartmouth. Crews from all British ships on the station also took part in a memorial service at the Cathedral for Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his companions - news of their deaths in Antarctica became known very soon after Newcastle's arrival in Shanghai.
In May, newspapers reported the crew of HMS Newcastle were "in peril" while fighting a fire at Shanghai:
"How 250 British bluejackets, who landed from HMS Newcastle in Shanghai, to combat a furious fire that had broken out on shore, were surrounded by flames and compelled to take to their boats in order to escape with their lives, is told, says the Exchange Telegraph Company, in letters just received by their Portsmouth relations from men on the China station. The fire broke out in the evening in a warehouse filled with tallow and other inflammable material which abuts on the quayside. The local fire brigade was quite inadequate to cope with the outbreak, and three foreign cruisers, which were lying in the harbour, landed men. The cruiser Newcastle sent the whole of her available crew, about 250 men. The bluejackets rigged up a pump on the quay ... and cut away a bridge communicating between the burning and the quay ... As the burning tallow ran out of the building, however, it formed a river of fire on the quay, and drove away all firemen. Three natives who stayed too long were roasted to death. The bluejackets found themselves marooned on the quay in a sea of fire. The tallow which had flowed over into the harbour and congealed also suddenly burst into flames. The order was given to return to the boats, some of which were perilously near the flames. One launch had a very narrow escape, the fire actually licking her sides fore and aft before she could get clear ... The warehouse and the surrounding buildings were gutted, but fortunately all the bluejackets got back to their ship in safety."
Later that summer the ships of the China Squadron found themselves uncomfortably close to fighting in what has become known as the Second Revolution, when southern Chinese provinces and the Nationalist Party revolted against the government led by Yuan Shikai. Large parties from HMS Monmouth and HMS Newcastle were put ashore to protect the foreign settlement in Shanghai, and according to newspaper reports, watched the fighting nearby as "interested bystanders". HMS Newcastle trained her searchlights during the night to protect the Customs ammunition magazine. By early September loyalist forces had overcome the rebellion.
From 1 December 1913 we are able to follow HMS Newcastle's movements in some detail as her log book has been transcribed (available on the website www.naval-history.net) from that date until 9 September 1919. In December 1913, the ship was in Hong Kong; from there she went back to Shanghai where she spent most of the next three months. For much of April 1914 she was in Nagasaki - Japan and Britain had formed an alliance in 1902, renewed in 1905 and again in 1911.
From there she moved to Weihaiwei, on the north-eastern coast of China, leased by the British from China until 1930 and used as a summer anchorage for the ships on the China and Pacific station. There the ship took part in several exercises, before heading north towards Russia's Pacific coast. On 16 July 1914, she arrived in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - the purpose of the visit was to erect a monument to Captain Charles Clerke RN. Clerke had commanded HMS Discovery on Captain Cook's third expedition to the Pacific, and had taken command of the expedition as a whole after Cook's death in 1779, only to die himself later that year of TB. He was buried in Kamchatka.
HMS Newcastle spent four days in Petropavlovsk before heading back to Weihaiwei, via Nagasaki.
Great War
On 4th August 1914, as Britain declared war on Germany, HMS Newcastle was en route to Hong Kong. She arrived the following day - the log book records briefly: "hands employed preparing for war". (For further background on the early stages of the war in the Pacific, see our article on The Battle of Coronel, in which HMS Monmouth was sunk.)
The first action for the China Squadron was an attack on the German cable telegraphy station at Yap Island (in the western Carolines and today part of Micronesia), on 12 August, and the chase of a German collier (captured by HMS Hampshire). HMS Newcastle then parted from the fleet, heading first for Yokohama and then for Esquimalt, the British naval base on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada, crossing the International Date Line on 24 August. She reached Esquimalt a week later.
The next few months were spent on patrol off the North American coast, until she was ordered in December 1914 to head further south in search of the German auxiliary cruiser, SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich, a German passenger liner converted at the start of the war in Tsingtao (now Qingdao), which had orders to attack and destroy allied merchant shipping in the Pacific and South Atlantic. HMS Newcastle was ordered to Valparaiso, Chile, to search for her.
On 11 December, HMS Newcastle was between the Galapagos Islands and Pinas Bay, Panama. That day back in Dartmouth the Dartmouth Chronicle published another instalment of the "Roll of Honour" recording everyone from the town serving in the Forces. The list showed all three Widdicombe brothers in the Royal Navy:
- Widdicombe F, Chief Stoker, HMS London
- Widdicombe H A, 1st Class PO, HMS Newcastle
- Widdicombe T G, Mechanician, HMS Ajax
On Christmas Eve HMS Newcastle reached Valparaiso, stopping there only to coal. On Christmas Day she passed through the area in which the Battle of Coronel had been fought just over seven weeks earlier, but there is no mention of the battle in the ship's log. Nor was there any sign of her quarry, the SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich.
HMS Newcastle headed further south towards the Gulf of Penas, so named because of the bad weather frequently experienced there. Her log records "heavy west-north-westerly squalls" and winter clothing was issued on 25 January 1915. The following day the ship began the long journey back up the coast of south and north America, reaching Esquimalt once more on 3 March 1915 and going into dry dock there for a little over two weeks. On 1 April 1915, as HMS Newcastle was involved in target practice in Barkley Sound, west of Vancouver Island, Harry was promoted to Acting Chief Petty Officer.
Much of the rest of 1915 was spent on patrol off the coast of Chile and Peru, returning to Esquimalt by the end of October to go into dry dock for a few weeks. Newcastle left again for South America on 26 November 1915. On 28 January 1916, off the Chilean coast, HMS Newcastle detained and captured the American steamer Edna, previously the Mexican ship Mazatlan, and prior to that, the Norwegian ship Jason. While registered as Mexican she was owned by Friedrich Jebsen, a German naval reserve officer and, apparently, intelligence agent, who had re-registered the ship as German just as the war began. She was soon involved in coaling the German cruiser Leipzig; and subsequently was used by different sides in the Mexican civil war until eventually Jebsen sold her to American owners.
The British considered the ship a legitimate prize "on ground of enemy ownership and of transfer from the enemy flag after the outbreak of war" and argued that she had acted as an auxiliary to the German fleet. Naturally this was contested by her American owners but the further transfer to the American flag had raised considerable suspicion. The American case for compensation eventually went to international arbitration between the British and US governments, being decided in 1934.
Edna/Mazatlan was sent under a prize crew to the Falkland Islands, being the nearest available British territory. Meanwhile, on 31 March 1916, with HMS Newcastle in the Chilean port of Coquimbo, Harry was promoted to Chief Petty Officer. By 25 May the ship was once again back in Esquimalt, and on 25 June the ship was paid off and, according to the ships log, "hands embarked on SS Princess Victoria for passage home". Harry arrived safely in England in August - courtesy of the Royal Navy, he had travelled round the world.
After some time ashore, probably on leave and also at HMS Defiance, probably for further training, Harry joined HMS Opossum, an old torpedo boat destroyer based in Devonport. This move brought him back into much more familiar waters, but in the uncomfortable and challenging conditions of the war against the U-boats in the Western Channel, which brought several casualties to Dartmouth (see the stories of James Taylor, William Milne and Frederick Tillier). Early in 1917 a convoy system had been introduced, and anti-submarine forces built up - HMS Opossum formed part of the Devonport "hunting flotilla", responding to reports of submarines in the area between Plymouth and Portland.
On one night in December, just before Christmas, there were three attacks on merchant shipping between Start Point and Berry Head. Convoy traffic between Plymouth and Portland was stopped:
"Towards evening the Devonport hunting flotilla left harbour to search the coastal route across Lyme Bay. Commander Adrian Keyes ... collected three destroyers - Spitfire, Roebuck, and Opossum - five motor launches, four drifters, and two fishing trawlers for the operation. He hoped that if his ships were well spread, one or more of them would pick up sounds of the submarine charging its engines, and that, after it had been thus located, the flotilla would be able to bring it to action as it approached the traffic route on the following morning ..."
Notwithstanding the new hydrophone technology, submarine hunting was frustrating and difficult - the flotilla was unsuccessful on that occasion, though HMS Opossum was part of a successful operation against submarine UC49 on 4 August 1918. However, by that time Harry had been invalided out of the ship suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs. He was sent to Plymouth Hospital on 1 June 1918, where he spent around six weeks, but on 10 July 1918 his naval service came to an end and he was discharged to the Hermitage Sanatorium in Whitwell, on the Isle of Wight.
Death
From there he returned to Dartmouth, to Hildene, Above Town, the house of his sister Hilda and their mother Ellen (Hilda's husband Frederick Burman was serving in the Army). But clearly the disease was by then far advanced - Harry died at Hildene on 23 November 1918, twelve days after the Armistice and three weeks short of his 41st birthday.
The Dartmouth Chronicle of 29 November 1918 carried two announcements of his death and a fuller obituary in its columns, including a report of his funeral at St Petrox:
The Late H A Widdicombe
Splendid Service Record
We regret to record the death on November 23rd, at Hildene, Above Town, of Henry Arthur (Harry) Widdicombe, late CPO RN, son of Mrs Widdicombe and the late Mr S Widdicombe.
Deceased was 40 years of age and had seen 25 years service. He served with the Naval Brigade in the South African War, and possessed the medal with 4 bars, Transvaal, Driefontein, Pardeberg, and Cape Colony. He was also the holder of the Long Service and Good Conduct medal.
He saw active service in the present war on board HMS Newcastle, on the Pacific and China Station, returning to England in August 1916. At the time of his illness he was on board HMS Opossum. Following his discharge he went to a sanatorium in the Isle of Wight, and only came home to Dartmouth a few weeks back. Despite every attention from his relatives and the medical skill of Dr Paulson, he grew gradually worse, and passed away last Saturday morning.
The funeral took place yesterday at St Petrox Churchyard, the Rev A W Smyth officiating. The bearing party was provided by petty officers from the Royal Naval College. The chief mourners were Mrs Widdicombe, mother; Mrs Burman and Mrs Damarell, sisters; F Widdicombe RN, TG Widdicombe RN, and R Widdicombe RN Dockyard, brothers; Mr and Mrs Eli Fleet, uncle and aunt; Mr and Mrs W Moses, uncle and aunt; Mr F Moses, cousin; and Mr A Taylor. There was a large number of floral tributes. Messrs R Pillar and Son were the undertakers.
Deaths
Widdicombe - November 23rd, at Hilldene, Above Town, Henry Arthur (Harry) Widdicombe, late CPO RN (HMS Opossum) the dearly loved son of Ellen and the late Samuel Widdicombe, of Dartmouth. A bitter blow.
Widdicombe - in loving memory of our dear brother Harry, who fell asleep November 23rd 1918. Deeply mourned by his sorrowing brothers and sisters.
Both his brothers serving in the Royal Navy survived the war but sadly for the family, Harry's sister Hilda also died whilst still relatively young, in 1920.
Harry is commemorated on the Town War Memorial and on the St Petrox War Memorial. The St Petrox Memorial states that the cause of his death was "exposure". There is no reference to this in his naval service record (which explicitly refers to tuberculosis). The Royal Navy at this time experienced a higher incidence of the disease relative to the general population, due to the close proximity in which men lived and worked in ships (particularly other ranks who did not have the benefit of individual cabins). This was despite attention being paid to better rations, better ventilation and earlier and better medical diagnosis. It appears that statistics on the disease were not kept by the Royal Navy between the years 1914-1921, but it would not be surprising if the demands of Harry's wartime service not only increased the risk of developing the disease but also hastened its progress.
Active servicemen who died up to 31 August 1921 were entitled to a war grave, as were those who died before that date but after they were discharged (as Harry was), if their death was caused by their wartime service. It is perhaps surprising that Harry was not commemorated with an official war grave. Instead, Harry's family chose to record the words "disabled in the Great War" and "duty nobly done" on the gravestone commemorating him, his father Samuel, mother Ellen and brother Thomas.
Sources
Naval service record of Henry Arthur Widdicombe ADM 188/290/176255, continued at 176261, obtainable at The National Archives, fee payable for download or sign in to obtain at no charge
Naval Brigades in the South African War ed Surgeon T T Jeans RN, London 1901. Viewable on website AngloBoerWar.com (which contains a great deal of information about that conflict and other related issues)
Transcript of Log of HMS Newcastle December 1913-September 1919
Reports of International Abritral Awards: SS Edna: Disposal of pecuniary claims arising out of the recent war (1914-1918) (United States, Great Britain) 22 December 1934. Volume III pp 1585-1606
History of the Great War: Naval Operations Volume V, Longmans, 1931, Henry Newbolt. Viewed on website archive.org
Pulmonary Tuberculosis in the Royal Navy, Sheldon F Dudley, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1941
Newspapers sourced via British Newspaper Archive website
Note:
Henry Arthur Widdicombe is not the brother of Frederick John Widdicombe d 1917 (as suggested by another website).
Information Held on Database
| Surname: | Widdicombe |
| Forenames: | Henry Arthur |
| Rank: | Chief Petty Officer RN |
| Service Number: | 176255 |
| Military Unit: | HMS Opossum |
| Date of Death: | 23 Nov 1918 |
| Age at Death: | 41 |
| Cause of Death: | Disease: tuberculosis |
| Action Resulting in Death: | |
| Place of Death: | Dartmouth |
| Place of Burial: | St Petrox |
| Born or Lived in Dartmouth? | Yes |
| On Dartmouth War Memorial? | Yes |
| On St Saviour's Memorials? | No |
| On St Petrox Memorials? | Yes |
| On Flavel Church Memorials? | No |
| In Longcross Cemetery? | No |
| In St Clement's Churchyard? | No |
| On a Private Memorial? | Yes |
| Name of Private Memorial: | |
| On Another Memorial? | No |
