HMS Torrent – Royal Navy
John Creed Rudge was born on 3 August 1895 at Wotton-under-Edge, where he also went to school. He was one of seven children. As a young man he worked as telegraph messenger in Wotton’s Post Office and was a member of the local Baptist Church.
In 1910, aged 15, John joined the Royal Navy and appears to have spent his naval career serving on destroyers, initially with HMS Myngs and later with HMS Torrent, an ‘R’ Class Destroyer built in 1916.
On the evening of 23 December 1917, HMS Torrent, accompanied by HMS Surprise, Tornado and Radiant sailed from Harwich to meet a Dutch convoy at the Maas Light Vessel, which guarded the approach to Rotterdam. The group ran into a minefield laid by the Germans about a month before. Torrent was the first to strike a mine and Surprise, in going to her aid, suffered a similar fate. Tornado then struck two mines whilst trying to escape, only Radiant returned to port unscathed, having picked up such survivors as there were.
In all, 252 seamen were lost that night along with three of the Royal Navy’s finest and most modern destroyers.
Only one man survived from HMS Torrent.
John Rudge was 22 years of age at the time of his death and he is commemorated on the Royal Navy War Memorial at Southsea and on the War Memorial at Wotton-under-Edge. His remains have never been located or identified so his name was added to those of the Missing of the Battle of Loos, in the Memorial inside Dud Corner Cemetery.