"Shall Be Remembered"

At about 9:00 pm on March 26, 1918, HMS Kale, a destroyer in the British Royal Navy, left Inningham on England's east coast at the head of a three-ship flotilla.  When Petty Officer Thomas Proctor first received the order to sail, he began directing his men to prepare for the voyage.  If Thomas knew the ship's destination was Portsmouth, an important naval base on the English Channel, he must have hoped he would get to see his seven-year-old daughter Mary. Such a visit was especially important since Clara Proctor, Thomas’ wife, and Mary’s mother had died about a year earlier.  Sadly, it was not to be.  At about 7:40, the next morning, the Kale struck a mine, split in two, and sank, drowning 40 members of the crew including Thomas.  It was obviously a terrible day for the victims and their families.  It would, however, take another 75 years before the full story was revealed - a story even more tragic than the original version.

Royal Navy Memorial - Chatham, England

Thomas Alexander Proctor was born in Liverpool, England on February 15, 1880, the third of Nathaniel and Mary Balmer Proctor’s four sons.  Nathaniel was my grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Proctor's uncle so Thomas was my distant cousin.  If Thomas and my grandmother ever met, it was as very small children in 1881, when Mary's family was preparing to sail from Liverpool to Trenton, New Jersey. Some 17 years later, on February 18, 1898, Thomas, enlisted in the Royal Navy.  The date is probably not a coincidence since he had just turned 18, the age when young men could enlist in the Navy without their parent's consent.  No information survives about Thomas's motivation, but it was likely due to a lack of jobs or at least decent-paying jobs.  Naval service had also become somewhat more attractive because with Germany the greatest perceived threat, the fleet now spent most of its time in home waters.  At the time of his enlistment, Thomas stood 5’ 6” with brown hair and brown eyes.  He was still growing and was almost 5’ 9” in 1912.

Thomas Proctor's service record

Although in 1898 Royal Navy ships were fueled by coal or oil, Thomas most likely received his basic training on a wooden sailing ship.  Thomas gradually rose through the ranks until he was promoted to petty officer in 1905.  Naval petty officers are basically the equivalent of sergeants in the army – senior non-commissioned officers.  Thomas’ service record consistently reflects "very good" character ratings, but in spite of his good record, Thomas chose to leave the Navy in 1910 after 12 years of service.  While no information survives about the reason for his decision, it was likely family-based.  In the first quarter of 1909, Thomas married Clara Lucy Wilkins of Portsmouth, and their child, Mary Hannah Proctor was born on August 29, 1910.  At the time of the 1911 census, the family was living in Merton, Surrey where Thomas worked for an electrical supply company.

HMS Blanche

Thomas’ return to civilian life was short-lived as he rejoined the Navy in October of 1912.  Here again, no explanation of the move survives.  A few months later, in January 1913, Thomas was assigned to the HMS Blanche. Just over 400 feet long and 42 feet wide, the Blanche was the command ship of a flotilla of destroyers.  Destroyers were the fastest warships in the fleet, used primarily for patrolling and raiding.  The Blanche had a crew of 314, including Thomas, who was one of five petty officers. When World War I broke out, the Blanche was at Scapa Flow.  Located in the Orkney Islands, off the coast of Scotland, Scapa Flow is one of the world's largest natural harbors, covering some 125 square miles.  Perhaps surprisingly, World War I naval duty at Scapa Flow was, for the most part, boring and monotonous.  With one notable exception, the German High Seas fleet remained in port and duty consisted primarily of patrolling without seeing “an enemy who seemed hardly ever to make an appearance.” 

Scapa Flow at the end of World War I

The exception to the boredom and monotony of Scapa Flow was the Battle of Jutland which took place on May 31-June 1, 1916.  It was the largest naval battle of World War I, involving 250 ships and 100,000 men.  Who won the battle has been debated ever since, but in the end, the German fleet returned to port, leaving the Royal Navy in control of the sea.  As a result, the British continued the naval blockade of Germany, one of the key factors in the ultimate Allied victory.  Serving on the Blanche, Thomas Proctor was at Jutland, but the ship was at the rear of the English fleet and so far removed from the action, it didn’t even fire its guns.  Seven months after the battle, in January of 1917, the Blanche left the British Grand Fleet and was converted into a minelayer.

HMS Kale

Six months later, in July of 1917, Thomas left the Blanche for a shore assignment.  It’s highly likely that this was due to the death of his wife Clara on February 24, 1917.  According to the death certificate, the primary cause of death was childbirth.  No record has been found of the child’s birth suggesting both mother and child died.  Thomas's stay on shore didn't last long. He left Mary with Clara's mother in Portsmouth and on September 15, 1917, joined the HMS Kale.  The Kale was a river-class destroyer, launched in November 1904.  Based on the ship’s length and width, it was about one-half the size of the Blanche with a crew of only 70, compared to the over 300 on the Blanche. By March of 1918, the Kale was commanded by Commander Harold Edmund Dennison.

British Navy map from 1918 - A (upper right) marks Immingham, the Kale's point of departure, B (lower center) marks Portsmouth, the flotilla's destination, and C (right center) approximately where the Kale hit the mine and sank.

Dennison was “specifically selected" to command the voyage to Portsmouth because of "his knowledge of the coast.” He was ordered to take the Kale, followed by the Exe and Waveney on “a safe and proper course through the swept [free of mines] channel.”  Dennison later claimed he received “verbal orders” about the "proper course," which were “rather disconnected.”  On returning to the Kale, he had to go almost immediately to the bridge and didn’t have time to look at charts or naval notices.  After sailing all night, at about 6:45, mines were spotted “all around” the Kale.  Dennison ordered the ship to stop while signal flags were raised and the siren was blown.  But there wasn't enough time for the trailing two ships to take evasive action. The Exe hit a mine, damaging the ship, but it stayed afloat.  Dennison ordered the Waveney to tow the Exe and looked for a way to get the Kale out of the minefield.

The first page of the court martial transcript with the order that it be kept secret for 75 years

With few options, Dennison decided the best, or perhaps, only avenue of escape was the way the ship had entered the minefield.  At his command, the Kale reversed course and began moving slowly, but soon encountered a mine “amidships under the port side.” Dennison took further evasive action, but the mine exploded.  The blast broke the ship in two, killing about one-half of the crew, including Thomas Proctor.  As bad as this was, ships do hit enemy mines during wartime.  What made the Kale story even more tragic is the mines were British mines. Dennison in spite of his orders, and his supposed "knowledge of the coast," had sailed his ships into a British minefield.  In fact, the Kale was a full six miles to the east of the safe war channel, following a route that hadn’t been used since 1916. Clearly, some kind of accountability was required and Dennison was court-martialed for “negligence” about two weeks later.  

Thomas Proctor's pension record for the benefit of Mary, his orphan daughter

Dennison's defense was that he believed the route he took “was the way I was told to go” in the “rather disconnected” verbal orders mentioned earlier.  In the course of the court-martial,  it was disclosed that the charts on all three ships had not been updated to reflect the minefield.  This was in spite of the fact that Dennison had had 30 days to update them, again, one reason he was put in charge.  It was no surprise Dennison was found guilty. Somewhat surprising, however, was the sentence. In administering punishment, the court took into consideration his previous service record and the “strenuous war conditions under which he was sailing.”  As a result, his punishment was to be “severely reprimanded” and dismissed from his current assignment.  Another mitigating factor was the lack of any “coherent organization” to how charts were to be updated.  None of this came out at the time and the true story of the Kale disaster was kept secret until 1994.

Death certificate of Mary H. Proctor, Thomas' daughter

Even had the real story been known at the time, it wouldn't have helped seven-year-old Mary, who was now an orphan.  She was given a pension of 10 shillings a week until 1926 when she would presumably be able to support herself.  Fortunately, Mary had family members who cared about her.  Mary's uncle, George Henry Proctor, Thomas' younger brother, and his wife, Eveline, adopted the bereft little girl. George was an Anglican minister, who died on February 18, 1941, while serving as Vicar of St. John’s Church Doddington in Cheshire.  Mary remained with Eveline until Eveline died in 1959.  Where Mary lived afterward isn’t clear, but she died on March 24, 1996, at the age of 86 in a nursing home.  Thomas Proctor’s body was never recovered and his name is listed on the Royal Navy’s Memorial to the missing at Chatham.  He died, sadly, tragically, and unnecessarily in the service of his country. To give meaning to his service and sacrifice, as well as that of his family, it is essential that he, in Shakespeare's words, "shall be remembered" until "the ending of the world."