Gilbert Cains Naval record

Called Bertie on his birth certificate and Naval record, but always called Gilbert by the family.

Here is his naval record from the National Archives at Kew

Joined as a "Boy 2" in 1915, training at HMS Ganges and Pembroke I until September 1915.

Joined HMS Conquest in Sept 1915, a newly-built light cruiser in the Harwich flottila. He probably saw action on 24th April 1916 when 4 German battlecruisers and six light cruisers attacked Lowestoft. HMS Conquest was the flagship of Commodore Tyrwhitt; he approached the German fleet hoping to lure them away from Lowestoft. The German battlecruisers opened fire and badly damaged the Conquest, there were 40 dead and wounded. See for instance http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_lowestoft_raid.html and an account from the German side Germany's High Sea Fleet in the World War

HMS Conquest was not fully taken out of service but just had short periods of time out for repairs, and remained active with the Harwich flotilla. Gilbert always said that he had been at the battle of Jutland just a month later. He almost was, but not quite....

On 31st May 1916 at around 2pm, the British Grand Fleet met the German High Seas fleet in the North Sea, west of Jutland, and fighting continued all night. At 5.25pm the Harwich flotilla sailed out under Commodore Tyrwitt, apparently without any orders from the Admiralty ? At 6pm they were ordered to turn around and return to port, probably because the Admiralty thought the Germans might try another coastal raid while the bulk of the Royal Navy were occupied at Jutland.

Admiral Jellicoe had a signal at 3am next morning, 1st June, suggesting that the German fleet had got past the Royal Navy in the night, and would be able to get back to their ports. At 5am the Harwich flotilla was ordered to sail out and help the surviving Navy ships back to port. The flotilla escorted the battleship Marlborough which had been torpodoed, back to the Humber. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Marlborough_(1912)#Battle_of_Jutland

Gilbert was still on the Conquest on 13th June 1918 when it hit a mine near Chatham during gunnery practice. 7 men were killed and 15 wounded. Gilbert was commended for bravery during the emergency.

Gilbert then spent about 3 weeks at the HMS Pembroke base, ( and hopefully some leave ? ) before transferring to a cruiser HMS Dragon on 10th August 1918. The First World War was over in 3 months, but that was not the last of Gilbert's experience of battle. One of the terms of the Nov 1918 armistice was that a German army could stay in the Baltic states and help defend them from the Bolsheviks. They were joined by White Russians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Russian_Volunteer_Army who were able to repel the Bolsheviks, but then tried to defeat the new Baltic states' armies and occupy the states, which had historically been part of the Prussian lands. The situation was very confused, see for example General Alexander's part in this https://history.blog.gov.uk/2019/10/11/the-soldier-turned-diplomat/

The British government wanted to help the Baltic states gain independance, so sent Royal Navy ships in to oppose the German "private army". HMS Dragon sailed from Sheerness towards Riga on 10th October 1918, and they were in the Baltic till the 30th December. They bombarded the German forces around Riga on many days from 15th October to 10th November, but on the 17th October two shells from the shore hit HMS Dragon, killing 9 men. The ship's log for Aug 1919 to July 1921 is here https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-06-HMS_Dragon.htm

Gilbert finally left the navy on 22nd Dec 1922, married in 1927 and moved to near Whitby, where he had a long life growing prize-winning fruit and veg, and running a seaside holiday boarding-house with his wife. He died in 1974.

HMS Dragon ended her days in July 1944 bombarding the Normandy battlefields until she was hit by a German manned torpedo, and was then sunk as part of the Arromanches artificial harbour.

Return to henry-cains-family