1 Nov 1914 Battle of Coronel

[RCN]

100 years ago on Nov 1, the RCN suffered its first casualties of the Great War at the Battle of Coronel.

The naval Battle of Coronel took place on 1 November 1914 off the coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. German Kaiserliche Marine forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee met and defeated a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock.

Two RN Cruisers were sunk with no survivors, Craddock's Flagship HMS Good Hope & HMS Monmouth. 1570 British sailors went down with their ships on that evening, among them 4 RCN Midshipman who had previously joined HMS Good Hope when she called in at Halifax earlier in the fall. These 4 Midshipmen were part of the first class of RNCC(Royal Naval College of Canada) that graduated just before the war. They were all very young, the oldest being 19 yrs of age.

This post is in memory of those 4 Midshipman & the sailors who gave their lives that evening:

J.V. Hathaway
M.McCann
W.A. Palmer
A.W. Silver


{The Midshipman tunic I have attached a photo of is what the 4 Midshipman would have been wearing that day, this example is of the same period.}


RCN Bryan