WILLIAM JAMES SHRUBSOLE
b 1874 Margate, Kent
D 22 Sep 1914 at sea
Commemorated at Chatham Naval Memorial, Chatham, Kent
British War Medal Victory Medal 1914-15 Star {his medals were issued to his widow}
The son of Wallace Richard & Jane (nee Town) Shrubsole, husband to Marion Pointer & father to Marion & Geoffrey.
William enrolled in the Royal Navy in 1903 & was acting gunner on the HMS Aboukir when she,
along with HMS Hogue & Cressey, who were on patrol in the North sea, were sunk by one German submarine. These obsolete cruisers were recommissioned at the beginning of the war & were sighted by a German submarine early on 22 September 1914 steaming NNE at 10 knots without zigzagging. The patrols were supposed to maintain 12-13 knots & zigzag but these old cruisers were unable to maintain that speed & the zigzagging order was widely ignored as there had been no submarines sighted in the area during the war so far. The patrol were old Cressy class armoured cruisers and were vulnerable to raid by modern German ships & were often referred to as 'live bait squadron'. However the admiralty had insufficent modern light cruisers available so they were maintained. The submarine attacked the Aboukir at about 6.24 am with a single torpedo which struck her port side. She suffered rapid heavy flooding & despite counter flooding developed a 20 degree list and lost engine power. She was ordered to be abandoned, but only one boat had survived the attack so most of the crew had to jump into the sea. Aboukir sank about 30 minutes after being attacked & whilst it was sinking the German submarine fired two torpedos at the Hogue that hit her amidships and rapidly flooded her engine room. She took only 10 minutes to sink. Cressey was also sunk by torpedo. Survivors were picked up by several nearby merchant ships. 837 men were rescued but 1459 men died, William among them.
