George Mather
Worked as a clerk at Raleigh Cycle Works and joined the Navy in early 1938.
- Family History
- Military history
- Extra information
- Photographs
Son of Arthur and Florence Mather of 76 Somersall Street, Mansfield.
siblings: Emily, Arthur, Florence, Frank, Norman (died as a baby), Doris, John, Joan,and Harold.
HMS Royal Oak: A ship from WW1 era and had taken part in the battle of Jutland.
She was at anchor at Scapa Flow in the Orckney Islands when U-47 slipped through the defences and torpedoed the Royal Oak. From a complement of 1234, 835 were killed or died of their wounds.
A single torpedo hit at 01.04 hours but it caused little damage but at O1:16 hours 3 more torpedoes struck amid ships. The explosion blew a hole in the armoured deck, destroying the stoker's mess, Boy's Mess and the Marine's Mess. Cordite from the magazine ignited and the ensuing fireball passed through the ship and at 01:29 she sank, only 13 mins from when the torpedoes hit.
George was on leave at Whitsun but his leave for August had been cancelled due to the situation with Germany.
Stoker Roy Radford from Mansfield was also killed in this incident.
No photos