Name
Leonard Fish
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/09/1917
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Stoker 1st Class
K/17956
Royal Navy
H.M.S. "Pembroke"
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GILLINGHAM (WOODLANDS) CEMETERY, KENT
Naval. 16. 840.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth, Not on the Ware memorials
Pre War
Leonard was born in Ware, Hertfordshire, on the 12th November 1893, the son of Arthur & Elizabeth Fish and the fifth of ten Children.
The 1901 census records Leonard as aged 7 and a schoolchild living in Princes Street, Ware. His father and 5 of the children were born in Sawbridgeworth. Leonard started school on the 1st June 1900 aged 6, at St Mary’s C of E School in Ware, Herts. The 1911 census shows Leonard aged 17, living with his parents, 2 brothers and 3 sisters, at 41 Elm Grove Road, Bishops Stortford, Herts.
Leonard was employed in Bishops Stortford and his occupation was a tanners labourer, before who joined the Royal Navy on the 25th February 1913
Wartime Service
On 6 January 1916, Leonard was serving on the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS King Edward VII. At 0712, this ship departed Scapa Flow for a refit at Belfast. However, at 1047 she struck a mine laid by the German SMS Mowe. Efforts to tow her to safety failed and the crew were ordered to abandon ship. All but one of her crew were saved, including Leonard.
Leonard was at the Battle of Jutland. (31st May – 1st June 1916). On 31 May-1 June 1916, Leonard took part in the largest naval battle of all time, the Battle of Jutland. He was serving then on HMS Royal Oak, a ‘Dreadnought’ battleship, one of 151 Royal Navy warships involved. (The Royal Oak was later to be famously sunk at anchor in WW2 by a U Boat).
On 3 September 1917, Leonard was ashore at Chatham Naval Dockyard where he was awaiting a new posting. Along with 900 other ratings, he was sleeping in the drill hall because of a lack of accommodation in the main dormitories. On this night the Germans launched an air raid using five Gotha G V bombers. It was the first night raid of this type, and there was no blackout in place. Although one bomber turned back, the rest dropped 46 bombs on Gillingham and Chatham. At 23:12, two of these bombs struck the crowded drill hall. The exact time is known, because the drill hall tower clock stopped.
These bombs caused 136 fatal casualties (including those who died later) amongst the sleeping seamen. Many being killed by falling glass shards from the roof which decapitated and cut people to pieces. One of the fatalities was Leonard Fish.
Leonard Fish is buried in Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery, Kent. He was aged 23. Leonard’s connection to High Wych and Sawbridgeworth was through his family.
Additional Information
His brother Frederick, who also died.
Acknowledgments
Paul Johnson, David Harvey - Leventhorpe School Stuart Osborne, Douglas Coe
