Crew of HMS Defiance. Photo Cyberheritage
Writer Frederick George White
HMS Revenge, Royal Navy
Died of pulmonary tuberculosis
Date of Birth: 29 November 1898
Place of Birth: West Teignmouth, Devon
Date of Death: 28 March 1919 aged 20
Buried: Teignmouth Cemetery on Wednesday 2 April 1919; remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. James' Church Memorial Window, Teignmouth, Devon
Writer Frederick George White age 20.
Born in West Teignmouth on 29 November 1898 and baptised at St. James' Church on 25 January 1899 he was the only son of Frederick, mason, and Wilmot White, 19 Bitton Street. He was shown on 1901 census living with his parents at 19 Bitton Street. By 1911 the family have moved to 59 Bitton Street. He was a solo chorister at St. James' Church for many years.
Frederick joined the Royal Navy, service number M/25637, on 29 March 1917 as a Writer. He mainly served on board HMS Revenge and was part of the 1st Battle Squadron, Atlantic Fleet. On 10 October 1918 he was invalided ashore to HMS Vivid with pulmonary tuberculosis.
Frederick died at his home in Bitton Street on 28 March 1919. He was buried in Teignmouth Cemetery on Wednesday 2 April 1919; remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. James' Church Memorial Window, Teignmouth.
HMS Revenge
The Revenge was a super-dreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1910s.
She was commissioned in February 1916, and was with the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May that year.
HMS Revenge underway at sea © IWM (CH 823)
Revenge emerged from the Battle of Jutland unscathed. She saw no further action during the First World War but continued to see service in the inter-war period and during the Second World War.
HMS Vivid
During the First World War HMS Vivid was a Royal Navy base at Devonport, a district of Plymouth.
A number of ships were renamed HMS Vivid whilst serving as depot ships for the base, HMS Cuckoo (launched in 1873), was a torpedo gunboat that was HMS Vivid between 1912 and 1920.
Some men served at the base for the duration of the war, others could be recorded as serving on HMS Vivid when between ships, on leave or on route to hospital etc.
The Stonehouse Naval Hospital was a mile from the Devonport base. For casualities coming to the UK from ships in the Atlantic, Stonehouse was the first large UK Naval hospital that they would reach.
![Arriving at the Naval Hospital Stonehouse by boat. <br />Cyber Heritage [Public domain]](/images/snippets/rnh3.jpg)
Arriving at the Stonehouse Naval Hospital by boat. Cyber Heritage [Public domain]
There were a lot of casualties. Over 5000 British ships were lost in the First World War.
A J5 Class submarine built in the Devonport yard during WW1
(later transferred to the Australian Navy) © IWM SP3096
The Royal Navy Devonport dockyard was a part of the base. During WW1 the yard built battle cruisers, cruisers, dreadnoughts and submarines.
These all used the cutting-edge technology of the time as did the battle ship HMS Warspite and the steam-driven J5 submarine shown here.
Experts in every related field were gathered to help develop and test new designs for the best possible vessels and weapons to equip them.
The most capable people available would have trained those responsible for training others in using these newly developed technologies.
Battleship HMS Warspite. The battleship HMS Warspite (1913) was built at Devonport and was the most technically advanced ship of her era. She carried a company of more than 1,000 sailors and officers, holds more honours than any other in British naval history and served in both World Wars. At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, Warspite held off the German High Seas Fleet. © IWM (Q 75593)
Naval Trawlers
Vivid III was the part of the Devonport base relating to the Trawler Division.
At the outbreak of the First World War about 3000 civilian steam fishing trawlers were put into military service and more than 39,000 fishermen joined the Trawler Section of the Royal Naval Reserve to crew the ships they knew so well.
They cleared mines from sea routes, and attacked enemy submarines.
This was vitally important work, the Maritime Archeology Trust estimate that in 1918 alone, enemy U-boats sank 5896 British vessels.
Fishing vessels on Admiralty service played a role in something in the region of 20 per cent of all allied U-boat sinkings during 1918.
Fishermen, the Fishing Industry and the Great War at Sea: A Forgotten History.
By Robb Robinson page 161
