WWI Victory Medal. Pett. Survived sinking of HMS Hogue 1914. Sinking of the 3 Sisters.

Correctly named 184375 RJ Pett AB RN

Richard John Pett was born to Alfred and Elizabeth in 1880. He hailed from Gravesend. He had in 1903 married Sarah Ann Manley. We see that he in 1911 married Harriet Sarah Allsup.

Having enlisted into the Royal Navy in 1895 whilst working as a surveyors assistant, Richard had transferred into the Royal Fleet Reserve in 1910 and found himself aboard HMS Hogue from August 1914 until she was sunk by Uboat, U9, on the 22nd of September 1914.

HMS Hogue was a Cressy Class Destroyer launched in August 1900. She was sunk by U-9 along with her two sister ships HMS Aboukir and HMS Cressy with the loss of 48 of her crew. However, the total loss of all the three ships was 1,459.

The action of 22nd September 1914.

At 06:00 on 22 September, the weather had calmed and the ships were patrolling in line abreast. Lookouts were posted for submarine periscopes or ships and one gun on each side of each ship was manned. U-9 had been ordered to attack British transports at Ostend but had been forced to dive and shelter from the storm. On surfacing, Weddigen spotted the British ships and moved to attack. At 06:20, U-9 fired a torpedo at the middle ship from a range of 550 yards and struck Aboukir on the starboard side, flooding the engine room and causing the ship to stop immediately. No submarines had been sighted and Drummond, assuming that the ship had hit a mine, ordered the other two cruisers to close in to help. Aboukir capsized after 25 minutes and sank five minutes later. Only one lifeboat could be launched because of damage from the explosion and the failure of steam-powered winches needed to launch the others.

U-9, which had dived after firing the torpedo, rose to periscope depth and Weddigen saw the other two cruisers rescuing men from Aboukir. Weddigen fired two torpedoes at Hogue. As the torpedoes were fired, the bows of U-9 rose out of the water and she was spotted by Hogue, whose gunners opened fire before the submarine dived. The two torpedoes struck Hogue and within five minutes, Captain Wilmot Nicholson gave the order to abandon ship. Hogue capsized after ten minutes and sank at 07:15. Watchers on Cressy had seen the submarine, opened fire and made an abortive attempt to ram before turning to pick up survivors. At 07:20, U-9 fired two torpedoes at Cressy from her stern torpedo tubes. One torpedo missed and the submarine turned to fire her remaining bow torpedo. A torpedo struck Cressy on the starboard side at around 07:25 and a second hit the port beam at 07:30. The ship capsized to starboard and floated upside down until 07:55.

Two Dutch sailing trawlers in the vicinity declined to close with Cressy for fear of mines.[10][a] Distress calls had been received by Tyrwhitt, who, with the destroyer squadron, was already at sea returning to the cruisers now that the weather had improved. At 08:30, the Dutch steamship Flora approached the scene and rescued 286 men. Another steamer, Titan, picked up 147 men. More were rescued by the Lowestoft sailing trawlers, Coriander and J.G.C., before the destroyers arrived at 10:45. A total of 837 men were rescued but 62 officers and 1,397 men, many of them reservists, were killed. The dead included Robert Johnson, the captain of Cressy. The destroyers hunted the submarine, which had little electrical power remaining to travel underwater and could only make the journey on the surface. The submarine submerged for the night and returned to base the next day.

Post War, we find Richard in 1921 living at2 Canterbury Road, London. 

He was working for the Port of London Authority, River Department as a marine sounder.

Richard died in 1924.

He is entitled to a 1915 Star Trio.