Royal Navy – HMS Hawke
Rupert Henry Ingles-Chamberlayne was born on 4 July 1897. He was the son of Henry and his second wife Grace Ingles-Chamberlayne, who lived at The Hyde, Stow-on-the-Wold.
Rupert joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Cadet in 1910 and became a student at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, on the Isle of Wight. He became a Midshipman in August 1913, when aged 16 and was posted to HMS Hawke, an ‘Edgar’ Class old light cruiser.
Upon the outbreak of war Hawke joined with other cruisers of its class to form the 10th Cruiser Squadron, deployed between Scotland and Norway on the blockade of the North Sea.
On 15 October 1914 Hawke was on patrol off Aberdeen and at 9.30am had stopped to pick up mail from her sister ship HMS Endymion. She then set off at thirteen knots to regain station, steering a straight, rather than zig-zag course. Out of sight of the rest of the squadron she was struck by a single torpedo fired from the German submarine U-9 (which had been responsible for the sinking of the cruisers Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy on 22 September). The torpedo ignited a magazine and a tremendous explosion ripped a large hole in the ship’s side; she capsized and sank in minutes.
Concern was raised when Hawke failed to respond to signals and a destroyer, HMS Swift, was despatched from Scapa Flow to conduct a search. A raft containing an officer and 21 ratings was found and a boat with 49 survivors on board was picked up by a Norwegian steamer. The remainder of the ship’s company, 524 in all, which included Rupert, were lost.
Rupert was described in the Cheltenham Chronicle of 17 October 1914 as ‘a bright young fellow’. He is commemorated on Panel 1 of the Chatham Naval Memorial.