Remembering

It has been inspiring reading on Blipfoto everybody's words today, Remembrance Day.

My family is very fortunate in that we didn't lose anybody in the two world wars. However my mother's father was lucky to survive the first naval action in the First World War when his ship, HMS Hogue, was torpedoed off the Dutch coast on 22 September 1914. My grandfather was one of the 837 men picked up from the cold North Sea by Dutch trawlers, but 1459 men didn't survive the submarine action on what was to become known as the "live bait squadron". Grandpa never spoke of this - it wasn't until after the death of his son, my uncle, that it all came to light and I have since found out all about it on the wonderful Internet. He lived to a great age but retained his love of the navy, and took his grandchildren to Chatham Navy Days every year. How we loved those outings!