Description
1914-15 Star, British War & Victory Medal, Bronze Memorial Plaque, Stoker 1st Class Thomas William Barnes, HMS Queen Mary, Royal Navy, Killed in Action at the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916.
Thomas joined the Navy in 1914, and saw service on board HMS Indomitable during the first British attack on Gallipoli before war was declared 2 days later, bombarding the Turkish Fort of Sedd el Behr in November 1914, followed by fighting at the Battle of Dogger Bank, where the ship under direct order of Admiral Beatty blasted the Blucher sinking it and then spent almost 2 whole days towing home the battered HMS Lion back home.
Following this and 60 days in Prison having gone on the run for 10 days in July 1915, he joined HMS Queen Mary after a battle ready re-fit.
He would take part in the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916, at the battle his ship landed some solid shots on SMS Seydlitz, before drawing attention from the Derfflinger, whose onslaught triggered a massive magazine explosion, splitting the ship into pieces and in just 90 seconds, it sank to the bottom of the North Sea where it remains today. Only about 20 men miraculously survived, out of over 1200 men.
1914-15 Star officially impressed: “K. 22520 T. Barnes. Sto. 2. R.N.”
WW1 Pair officially impressed: “K. 22520. T. Barnes. Sto. 1. R.N.”
Memorial Plaque officially embossed: “THOMAS WILLIAM BARNES”
Packet addressed to Mrs A. Barnes, 20 Goodley Road, Woolston, Southampton.
An excellent complete grouping, full Trio on silk ribbons with matching Bronze Memorial Plaque, the plaque with original packet of posting from the Royal Arsenal to this next of kin.
Thomas William Barnes, was born on 30th June 1894 in Bournemouth, Hants. He was a 20 year old Fireman, when he attested for service with war on the horizon on 25th May 1914.
Already looking the part, he had some tattoos including: A Tomb Stone, Bird and Clasped Hands on his right arm.
It took him almost no time to land himself with a 10 day sentence to the “Cells” within his first 2 months of service.
With the war now on, he joined HMS Indomitable from 9th October 1914 to 3rd July 1915.
Thomas was on HMS Indomitable in late 1914, when on the 3rd November 1914, his ship, by order of Winston Churchill, took part in the first British attack on the Dardanelles following the opening of hostilities between Turkey and Russia, only his ship and 1 other, as well as French Ships made an attack on Gallipoli, taking part in a 20 minute bombardment which struck the fort at Sedd el Bahr displacing 10 guns and killing 86 Turkish soldiers.
Unfortunately for the upcoming Gallipoli campaign in April 1915 this mean that the Turkish got on with strengthening their defences and expanding their minefield.
This attack actually took place 2 days before Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire of Turkey which came on the 5th November.
He would then be involved in the Battle of Dogger Bank, where the ship blasted 134 shells at Blucher before she capsized and sank, following the success, the Indomitable was the one to tow HMS Lion back to port after she lost an engine, no doubt much of the strain was on men such as Barnes down in the engine room now requiring to pull both his ship and the Lion, this task took a whole 1.5 days having to be done at speeds of around 10mph.
Having returned back to England, he for some reason abandoned HMS Indomitable his papers noting “Run” on 3rd July 1915.
It took 10 days before he was recovered and was then sentenced by a War Office Court on 30th July 1915 to spend 60 days in detention.
After getting out of Jail he was sent to a new ship, joining HMS Queen Mary on 11th October 1915 serving on board until he met his death at the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916.
At this time the Queen Mary was at home getting refitted to join the Battlecruiser Fleet.
During that period he was advanced from Stoker 2nd Class to Stoker 1st Class on 6th January 1916.
Wikipedia has a detailed account of HMS Queen Mary at the Battle of Jutland which can be read here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Queen_Mary#Battle_of_Jutland
In brief:
At the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916 – 1st June 1916, HMS Queen Mary sailed with Beatty’s Battlecruiser Fleet during the “Run to the South” phase, engaging German battlecruisers, chiefly the SMS Seydlitz, at long range.
She scored several hits on Seydlitz between roughly 15:50 and 16:17, damaging a turret and a secondary gun. But around 16:25-16:26, fire from SMS Derfflinger found her, with one or two shells apparently detonating a forward magazine (likely the 4-inch battery magazine rather than the main ‘A’/’B’ turret magazines). This explosion then broke the ship in two; a midshipman in ‘Q’ turret named Jocleyn Storey survived and described the blast, subsequent fire, and toxic fumes inside the turret. The wreck sank quickly, showering the following ship, Tiger, with debris. Of her crew, 1,266 were lost, with only twenty survivors (18 men were picked up by British destroyers, 2 by the Germans).
The wreck now lies in three pieces on the seabed and is a protected site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Archaeological surveys from the earl 2000’s support the theory that a secondary magazine explosion, not a main turret magazine detonation, caused the fatal break-up, since a main magazine blast would likely have destroyed far more of the ship.
Being a Stoker down in the Engine Room meant that there was little chance of surviving, somehow 7 Stokers managed to make it away, with one miraculous survivor from the Engine Room was Stoker Albert Edwards who according to a family account: “Albert served on the Queen Mary as a stoker and miraculously survived the sinking of the ship at the Battle of Jutland. At the time of the explosion, Albert was in the engine room and both my mother and other relatives have always maintained that he was blown out of the funnel and into the water.
He was left in the water for a long time and was picked up eventually by a German U-Boat and taken to Germany for the remainder of the war.”
Thomas was officially declared as Killed in Action on 31st May 1916 and “Discharged Dead D.D.”
