Frederick Kilbourne

Frederick joined the Royal Navy on a 12 year engagement on 6 September 1912. He served in the following ships and shore establishments: Victory II 2 September 1912-21 September 1912 (Stoker 2nd Class); HMS Renown 22 September 1912-18 December 1912; Victory II 19 December 1912-19 June 1913; HMS Berwick 20 June 1913-16 September 1913 (Stoker 1st Class 2 September 1913); Victory II 17 September 1913-22 November 1913; HMS Impregnable 23 November 1913-21 February 1914; Victory II 22 February 1914-31 July 1914; HMS Good Hope 1 August 1914-1 November 1914. Record annotated, ‘NP2788/14. DD 1 November 1914. Lost when HMS Good Hope was sunk in action off Chilian Coast.’ Frederick was killed in HMS Good Hope at the Battle of Coronel; his body was not recovered for burial and he is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. HMS Good Hope was a Drake Class armoured cruiser built in 1901. By 1914 she was the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Christopher George Cradock, 4th Cruiser Squadron, which included HMS Good Hope, Monmouth, Glasgow and the armed merchant cruiser Otranto. The squadron intercepted Vice Admiral von Spee’s squadron which included Scharnhorst and Gneisenau forty five miles off the Chilean port of Coronel. None of the ships in Cradock's squadron posed a threat to von Spee’s modern ships, which had greater fire-power than those of the British Squadron, and Good Hope and Monmouth’s ship’s companies mainly comprised reservists whereas von Spee’s crews were well trained and experienced. The sun set at 18:50 on November 1st 1914, which silhouetted the British ships against the light sky while the German ships became indistinguishable from the shoreline behind them. Spee immediately turned to close and signalled his ships to open fire at 19:04 when the range closed to 12,300 yards. Spee's flagship, Scharnhorst, engaged Good Hope while Gneisenau attacked HMS Monmouth. HMS Good Hope was hit by Scharnhorst's third salvo, and the shells knocked out her forward 9.2-inch turret and set her forecastle on fire. Cradock, knowing his only chance was to close the range, continued to do so despite the battering that Spee's ships inflicted. By 19:23 the range was almost half of that when the battle began and the British ships bore onwards. Spee tried to open the range, fearing a torpedo attack, but the British were only 5,500 yards away at 19:35. Seven minutes later Good Hope sailed toward the German ships, which successfully manoeuvred; Spee ordered his armoured cruisers to concentrate fire on the British flagship which had drifted to a halt with her topsides ablaze. At 19:50 her forward magazine exploded severing the bow and she later sank in the darkness. Von Spee estimated that his flagship had made 35 hits on Good Hope, suffering only two hits in return that did no significant damage and failed to injure any of his crew. Good Hope was lost with all hands, a total of 919 officers and men. The captain of Cradock’s flagship, HMS Good Hope, was Captain Philip Francklin, who was a career officer and came from Gonalston Nottinghamshire (he is on the Gonalston memorial). A postscript to the battle is that von Spee’s squadron was destroyed, and he and his two sons killed, when the Royal Navy under Admiral Sturdee exacted retribution six weeks later at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914.

Nottingham Post notice (abridged), 26 November 1914: 'Kilbourne. On Good Hope, Fred, son of W & C Kilbourne, late of Duke Street, New Basford. Also obituary 2 December: 'F Kilbourne, Duke Street, New Basford, lost with HMS Good Hope, November 1st.' Nottingham Post, two 'in memoriam', 1 November 1915: 'Kilbourne, who went down on HMS Good Hope, November 1st' and 'Kilbourne, only son Fred, father, mother, only sister Maria.