Blew up 31 December 1915
HMS Natal. Built at Barrow by Vickers and Launched on the 25th November 1905 finally completed on the 5th March 1907.
Like her sister ships she joined the 5th Cruiser Squadron in 1907, until transferring to the 2nd cruiser Squadron in 1909. She escorted the Royal yacht Medina in 1911 to 1912.
HMS Natal also had the duty to carry the body of the the US Ambassador to Great Britain, Whitelaw Reid, back to New York.
At the outbreak of war she joined the The Grand Fleet and in January 1915 was refitted at Cromarty.
HMS Natal blew up in Cromarty harbour on 30th December 1915 with the loss of 421 officers and men, after a fire spread to a magazine. The reasons behind the fire have never been fully explained.
Roll of Honour
"Lest we forget"
Their name liveth for evermore
Andrew Douglas Evers - Ships Cook
John Mcloughlin
Arthur George Chillcott
Jack Sayers - Assistant Band Master [Marines] - Aged 26
William Black - Lt. Engineer
Denis Coyle Scrimgour
Amos Harold Stedman - 1st. Class Stoker
James Vandome Reins - Chief Petty Officer Stoker
Victor George Hurn - Stoker 1st Class
Alfred Ready
William Wightman - Stoker 1st Class
Henry Thornhill Moon - Leading Signalman
Joseph Hart - Leading Stoker
J. Pledger - Chief Stoker
B. Weatherall - Mechanician
W.C. Brisley - Leading Seaman
C.T. Hodges - Musician
H. Atkins - Able Seaman
W.J.R. McQueen - Able Seaman
E.J. Smith - Ordinary Seaman
J. Ditchburn - Stoker
Albert Rodger
Jack Berkeley Murray - Lieutenant Commander
James Vendome Reins
Whimster Keiller Moody - Ships Surgeon
Robert Henry Lomas - Signal Boy (Aged 16)
Ben Weatherall
George Gorton - Stoker
Samuel Walter Savage - Leading Stoker
Bertie Fry - Seconded to the Dockyard at the time of the explosion.
John Baylis
