Name
Robert Henry Willis
13 April 1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/05/1916
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Able Seaman
SS/2307
Royal Navy
H.M.S. Queen Mary
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Navy Star, British War Medal and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
16.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Newsells Memorial Stone, Clare War Memorial, Suffolk, St Paul's Church Memorial, Clare, Suffolk
Pre War
Robert Henry Willis was born on 13 April 1889 in Hempstead, Saffron Walden, Essex, the son of Robert Henry and Mary Ann Willis.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Blaydon Farm, Hempstead, where his father was working as a shepherd. By 1901 they had moved to Chilton Maple Road, Clare, Suffolk where his father continued working as a shepherd.
He enlisted into the Royal Navy in 1908, prior to which he had been working as a farm labourer. He served on several ships, rising from ordinary seaman to able seaman.
His mother later lived in Hundon Road, Stoke by Clare, Suffolk.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war, Robert was serving on HMS Queen Mary and was killed in action on 21 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland against the German fleet in the North Sea, which was the largest fleet action of the war. She was hit twice by the German battlecruiser Derfflinger during the early part of the battle and her magazines exploded shortly afterwards, sinking the ship with the loss of 1266 men. Only eighteen men survived.
Robert's body was not recovered for burial and his name is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent.
Additional Information
A pension card exists with his mother as dependant but a pension was refused, although naval records indicate a war gratuity was paid.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Malcolm Lennox
