Name
Robert William Rhodes
23 June 1902
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
28/11/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Boy 2nd Class
J/93453
Royal Navy
H.M.S. Ganges
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Searched but not found
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
APSLEY END (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD
South of Chancel.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
St Mary's Church Memorial, Apsley End,
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Robert William Rhodes was born on 23 June 1902 in Hemel Hempstead, the son of Robert William and Alice Rhodes and they lived at 49 Bennetts End, Hemel Hempstead. He had an older half-brother Edward and two younger siblings Thomas and Eleanor. Another un-named sibling died in infancy.
Robert's parents both worked at John Dickinson & Co, but his mother later left to look after the children. The family lived at Nash Mills and the children were educated there. When Robert left school in 1915 he went to work as a Mill Sawyer but left in October 1918 to join the Royal Navy.
His parents later lived at 97 North Street, Leighton Buzzard.
Wartime Service
Robert had enlisted into the Royal Navy as a 'Boy 2nd Class' when he was sixteen years old with the permission of his parents. He was required to serve in the Navy for a minimum period, usually 12 years which would have started when he had completed his initial training and reached the age of eighteen.
He was sent to HMS Ganges, which was a shore training establishment at Shotley, Ipswich, Suffolk. He had only been there for a few weeks when he contracted "Spanish Flu", the influenza pandemic which was spreading around the world.
He was admitted to the Naval Hospital at Shotley but developed complications and died from from broncho-pneumonia on 28 November 1918, age 16.
His body was returned to Apsley and he is buried in St Mary's Churchyard, Apsley End.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.history-room. st-marys-apsley, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk., www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
