Name
Arthur William Richards
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/07/1917
17
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Boy 1st Class
J/45298
Royal Navy
H.M.S. "Vanguard"
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
22.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Christchurch Memorial, Little Heath,
Potters Bar, Little Heath & Bentley Heath Memorial, Potters Bar,
All Souls Chapel Book of Remembrance, Potters Bar
Pre War
Born in Bethnal Green, 5 May 1900. Son of Henry Frederick and Ellen Richards, of Thornton Rd., Little Heath, Potters Bar, Middx. In the 1911 census he was a schoolboy living with his father Henry Frederick Richards and stepmother and siblings in Thornton Road, Little Heath. Arthur’s mother Ellen had died when he was two years old.
Wartime Service
Started as Boy 2nd Class on 16 September 1915 at training ship HMS Powerful at Devonport. Moved to training ship HMS Impregnable also at Devonport 31 October 1915. Promoted to Boy 1st Class 8 January 1916. Posted to scout cruiser HMS Blanche 17 September 1916. Posted to battleship HMS Vanguard 13 November 1916. Killed or died by means other than disease, accident or enemy action 9 July 1917. At 11.20 pm on 9 July 1917 HMS Vanguard exploded while at anchor in Scapa Flow, Orkney. A court of inquiry found no clear cause, but many consider that most likely a fire in an adjacent coal bunker had overheated cordite stored against the bulkhead in one of Vanguard’s magazines. The resulting explosion triggered other magazines and the ship was blown apart. Just 2 of 845 personnel on board survived.
Acknowledgments
Martin Cope
