Vincent Wheatley

Vincent joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 29 January 1913 when he was 16 years old. He served in the following ships and shore establishments: HMS Ganges 29 January 1913 – 16 June 1913 (Boy 2nd Class, Boy 1st Class 16 June 1913); HMS Hawke, 17 June 1913-24 October 1913; Victory I, 25 October 1913-27 November 1913; HMS Bulwark, 28 November 1913-26 November 1914. Record annotated ‘NP 3063/14, DD 26 Nov. 1914 when Bulwark was sunk.’ Vincent was killed when HMS Bulwark sank following an explosion; his body was not recovered for burial and he is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. The pre-Dreadnought battleship HMS Bulwark of the 5th Battleship Squadron, Channel Fleet, was sunk on 26 November 1914 by an ammunition explosion while at No 17 Buoy in the River Medway off Sheerness. Only 12 men survived from a ship’s company of over 750 and among the dead were sailors and Royal Marines from Nottinghamshire, many of whom came from the Meadows and Radford. Eye-witnesses in nearby ships described seeing smoke from the stern of the ship before the explosion, which appeared to have been in an after magazine. Divers who examined the wreck a few days later reported that Bulwark’s port bow had been blown off by the explosion and lay 50 feet beyond the mooring while the starboard bow lay 30 feet further away. No other large sections of the ship could be found. A Naval board of enquiry into the cause of the explosion concluded that the most likely cause of the disaster was the overheating of cordite charges stored alongside a boiler room bulkhead. It was also suggested that shells for the ship’s 6” guns had been stored in in cross-passageways connecting the ship’s 11 magazines and had, contrary to regulations, been packed too close together and were also touching the magazine bulkheads. A chain reaction explosion of the shells would have been sufficient to detonate the ship’s magazines. On the afternoon of Thursday November 26th 1914, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill rose to his feet in parliament. ‘I regret to say,' he began 'I have some bad news for the house. The Bulwark battleship, which was lying in Sheerness (on the River Medway) this morning, blew up at 7.35 o'clock. The Vice and Rear Admiral, who were present, have reported their conviction that it was an internal magazine explosion which rent the ship asunder. There was apparently no upheaval in the water, and the ship had entirely disappeared when the smoke had cleared away... I regret to say the loss of life is very severe. Only 12 men are saved. All the officers and the rest of the crew, who, I suppose, amounted to between 700 and 800, have perished. I think the House would wish me to express on their behalf the deep sorrow with which the House heard the news, and their sympathy with those who have lost their relatives and friends.'

His brother Private Reuben Wheatley, served with the 1st Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment) He landed in France on 4th November 1914 and was killed in action on 9th May 1915. He has no known grave, his name is commemorated on Ploegsteert Memorial.. Nottingham Post notice (abridged), 9 December 1914: 'V Wheatley, 9 Brand Street, Meadow Lane, Nottingham, lost with HMS Bulwark, age 17.' In memoriam published 26th November 1915 in the Nottingham Evening Post :- “WHEATLEY. – In loving memory of Vincent Wheatley, age 17, lost on the Bulwark, November 26th, 1914, youngest son of the late Elizabeth, 9 Brand-street, Nottingham. Time changes many things, but loving memory ever clings. – Albert and Cliff.” Above is courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918