Lieutenant George Cliffe Hatch
HMS Vehement, Royal Navy
Killed in Action
Date of Birth: 3 May 1894
Place of Birth: Dharsala, India
Date of Death: 2 August 1918 aged 24
Buried: Immingham (St. Andrew) Churchyard.Remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. James‘ Church Memorial Window, Teignmouth, Devon.
Awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Lieutenant George Cliffe Hatch age 24.
Born in the Punjab on 3 May 1894, baptised on 5 June at Dharsala, India, the son of Arthur Vincent, Captain Ghurka Rifles, and Eleanor Hatch of Isomer, Brimley, Teignmouth.
In 1901 he was a boarder at a school in Tunbridge Wells and by 1911 he was a naval cadet on board ship.
He was shown on the absent voters’ list for 1918 at Isomer, Brimley, East Teignmouth; his father, Lt. Colonel Hatch, was now retired and living there with his mother.
George entered the Royal Navy as a boy on 15 January 1907, became a Midshipman in 1912 and was gazetted Sub-Lieutenant in October 1914; then promoted Acting Lieutenant from 15 May 1916.
He served throughout the war. George was on board HMS Vehement which was on mine laying operations in Heligoland Bight when he was killed as the ship hit a mine on 2 August 1918.
Buried in Immingham (St. Andrew) Churchyard.Remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. James‘ Church Memorial Window, Teignmouth, Devon.
HMS Vehement
In World War I HMS Vehement was a destroyer of the Royal Navy built in 1917.
HMS Vehement. By unattributed. PD-US
On 1 August 1918, she was laying mines in the North sea when she struck a German mine at 23.47.
It caused the ammunition magazine to detonate, blowing off the entire section of the ship forward of the forward funnel.
She was taken in tow by the destroyer HMS Abdiel in the hope of saving her, but at 04:00 hours on 2 August Vehement's stern rose into the air, making further towing impossible. Her surviving crew opened all of her hull valves to speed her sinking and abandoned ship. HMS Telemachus and HMS Vanquisher then sank Vehement with gunfire.
One officer and 47 ratings of the Vehement died that night. The officer was Lieutenant George Cliffe Hatch of Teignmouth.
