A Superb, Complete and Rare 1914-15 Star Trio, Plaque & Scroll
(Royal Navy)
To:
S.S. 968. Able Seaman. GEORGE HARRY NEWTON (Age 31)
(H.M.S. HAWKE. SUNK BY GERMAN SUBMARINE U.9 (Captain Otto Weddigen)
on 15th October 1914.
One of ther earliest submarine action casualties of the Great War.
A Superb, Complete and Emotive Royal Navy grouping for one of the earliest German submarine sinkings of the Great War.
Earlier, on September 20th 1911, HMS HAWKE was involved with a collision with the RMS OLYMPIC the sister ship to the RMS TITANIC.
After a two-day gala visit to Liverpool, her official port of registry, RMS Olympic sailed to Southampton to prepare for her maiden voyage, planned for the 14th June. The first major occurrence in her service came that very summer and involved the Royal Navy cruiser HMS HAWKE. The Hawke collision occurred on 20 September, 1911, the height of Olympic’s sailing season. Despite a capacity load, the voyage had to be cancelled. The incident resulted in the flooding of two of her compartments and a twisted propeller shaft,. The Hawke collision is especially interesting because the repairs to Olympic were undertaken using parts from the Titanic resulting in a delay to TITANIC's maiden voyage.
" A serious touch of fate, as had HMS Hawke not collided with RMS Olympic and thus delayed the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic, then she may not have struck the iceberg and history would have been changed forever. "
The collision took place in the Solent just north of East Cowes I.O.W.
Group comes with various other papers, copy of service records (stating "D.D. Drowned in North Sea when HMS HAWKE was sunk by a German Submarine" )Further research includes a group picture of the Captian and crew of German submarine U.9.
GEORGE HARRY NEWTON who was from Mitcham in Surrey
is COMMEMORATED ON
THE CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
£895