Name
Richard Martin Odell
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/01/1915
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Stoker 1st Class
SS/110581(C)
Royal Navy
H.M.S. "Formidable"
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
Panel Reference: 12.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial,
St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin,
British Schools Museum Memorial, Hitchin
Pre War
Son of Bessie O'Dell, of 25, Hitchin Hill, Hitchin, Herts., and the late Stephen O'Dell.
Before joining the Royal Navy he worked at his father's forge and also at the ‘Herts Express’ Printing Works. When he joined the Navy on the 5th January 1911 he was given the Service Number SS110581(C).
Wartime Service
He served on a number of warships including H.M.S. ‘Black Prince’, H.M.S. ‘Vengeance’ and on the Torpedo Boat ‘Rattlesnake’. He had been serving on H.M.S. ‘Formidable’ for five months when it was torpedoed and sunk.
The Battleship H.M.S. ‘Formidable’ had been built in 1901 and was of 15,000 tons. It was struck at 2.20am by a torpedo from the German submarine U-24 between Portland Bill, where the warship had been performing exercises, and south of the Isle of Wight. A second torpedo struck the ship at 3.05am. There was a clear sky that night with visibility two miles, but with a rough sea and it proved difficult to launch the boats. The ship had no protective destroyer screen. Of the 780 men on board, 35 officers including Captain Loxley and 512 ratings were drowned.
He has no known grave and is remembered on the Chatham Memorial to the Missing.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines, Jonty Wild
