Gunner Arthur James Pitt interred Isle of Thasus 1918

In loving memory of

HERBERT MANN BALLS

The beloved husband of

ETHEL BALLS

Who entered into rest July 14th 1918

Aged 28 years

 

“O call it not death but life begun.”

“For ever with the Lord’”

 

Also in loving memory of

Gunner ARTHUR JAMES PITT, R.N.

Dearly loved brother of the above

ETHEL BALLS

Killed in action on H.M.S. Raglan

January 20th 1918

Aged 26 years

And interred at Kusu, Isle of Thasus,

Dardenelles.

 

“Gods will be done”

“Till we meet at Jesu’s feet”

 

PITT, ARTHUR JAMES

Rank:………………………......Gunner

Date of Death:…………….20/01/1918

Age:………………………….....26

Service:……………………....Royal Navy

………………………………......H.M.S. Raglan

Grave Reference:……….L. 72.

Cemetery:

LANCASHIRE LANDING CEMETERY

Additional Information:

Son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Pitt, of 10, Spurgeon Score, High St., Lowestoft.

CWGC: www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/600299/PITT,%20ARTHUR...

 

No obvious match on WW1 Naval Casualties.

 

The most likely Service Records match for this man is J4260 Arthur James Pitt, born Lowestoft on the 15th November 1891, are held at the National Archive under reference ADM 188/655/4260

discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D6856474

(see extract below)

 

There is no obvious Civil Probate for this man.

 

15th November 1891 – Birth

 

(Source: The Catalogue entry for his Service Records at the National Archive).

 

The birth of an Arthur James Pitt was registered in the Mutford District in the October to December quarter, (Q4), of 1891.

 

1901 Censuses of England & Wales and Scotland

 

The 9 year old Arthur J. Pitt, born Lowestoft, was recorded living at 5 Spurgeons Score, Lowestoft. This was the household of his parents Arthur, (aged 30, Labourer in Fish House, born Corton, Suffolk) and Agnes, (aged 31, born Dunbar, Scotland). As well as Arthur the couple also have a daughter, Ethel, (aged 10, born Scarborough, Yorkshire).

 

1911 Census of England and Wales

 

The 19 year Able Seaman Arthur J Pitt, born “Christchurch Lowestoft” and single, was serving at sea with the Royal Navy aboard H.M.S. Astraea.

 

HMS Astraea (1893)

 

HMS Astraea was an Astraea-class second class cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built towards the end of the nineteenth century, and survived to serve in the First World War.

 

Astraea served in the Mediterranean Sea in early 1900 under the command of Captain Alfred Paget, and was in China the following year under the command of Captain Casper Joseph Baker. She left Hong Kong on 27 March 1902, homeward bound, arriving in Singapore on 2 April, Colombo on 10 April, Suez on 27 April, Malta on 2 May, and in Plymouth on 14 May, having convoyed the destroyer Skate from the Mediterranean. She paid off at Chatham on 12 June 1902, and was placed in the B Division of the Fleet Reserve.

 

She was again sent to the China Station in 1906, followed by a period at Colombo between 1908 and 1911. She returned to Britain in January 1912, where she was refitted to return to service. She was recommissioned at the Nore in June 1912, and joined the Third Fleet

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Astraea_(1893)

 

His parents, Arthur Henry, (40, Fish Worker), and “Agness”, (41), were now living at 10 Spurgeon’s Score, Lowestoft. The couple have been married 20 years and have had 2 children, both then still alive. Still single and living with them is their daughter, Ethel, (aged 20 and a Dressmaker working from home.).

 

Service Record

 

Arthur enlisted as an adult on the 15th November 1909, having previously served as a Boy Sailor. He was then 5 feet 8 and a half inches tall, with Dark Brown Hair, Grey Eyes and a Fair Complexion. He was born 15th November 1891 at Lowestoft. His previous occupation was Fish Labourer.

30th March 1909 – 23rd July 1909 HMS Ganges (Boy II Class, Boy I Class)

24th July 1909 – 4th October 1909 HMS Cressy (Boy I Class)

5th October 1909 – 29th November 1909 HMS Victorious (Boy I Class, Ordinary Seaman)

30th November 1909 – 10th December 1909 HMS Pembroke (Ordinary Seaman)

11th December 1909 – 8th September 1910 HMS Charybdis (Ordinary Seaman)

9th September 1910 – 28th June 1912 HMS Astraea (Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman)

29th June 1912 – 13th September 1912 HMS Pembroke (Able Seaman)

14th September 1912 – 7th March 1913 HMS Actaion (Able Seaman)

8th March 1913 – 11th July 1913 HMS Vernon (Able Seaman)

12th July 1913 – 20th August 1913 HMS Pembroke (Able Seaman, Leading Seaman)

21st August 1913 – 10th March 1915 HMS Iphigenia (Leading Seaman, P.O.(N.S.)

11th March 1915 – 21st March 1915 HMS Pembroke (P.O.(N.S.))

22nd March 1915 – 10th August 1915 HMS Actaion (P.O.(N.S.))

11th August 1915 – 11th August 1915 HMS Pembroke (P.O.(N.S.))

12th August 1915 – 22nd December 1916 HMS Jupiter (P.O.(N.S.))

23rd December 1916 – 15th January 1917 HMS Pembroke (P.O.(N.S.))

16th January 1917 – 7th March 1917 HMS Dido (Lark) (P.O.(N.S.))

8th March 1917 – 10th April 1917 HMS Attentive II (Lark) (P.O.(N.S.))

11th April 1917 – 20th June 1917 HMS Victory (P.O.(N.S.))

There is then a note Officers Section which could be a standard heading, (there are a couple of these on the proforma) or could be that his records for the subsequent period are held elsewhere.

 

There was a note in the remarks that he was promoted to Acting Gunner. That and his posting aboard HMS Astraea at the time of the 1911 probably mean this is the correct service record

 

A further search reveals that there are records at the National Archive for Acting Gunner Arthur James Pitt, born 15th November 1917. He was appointed to this rank on the 7th June 1917. As a Warrant Officer his old service number as a rating would no longer have applied.

discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7572684

 

His last ship

 

HMS Raglan was a First World War Royal Navy Abercrombie-class monitor, which was sunk during the Battle of Imbros in January 1918.

 

On 3 November 1914, Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel offered Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, the use of eight 14-inch (356 mm)/45 cal BL MK II guns in twin gun turrets, originally destined for the Greek battleship Salamis. These turrets could not be delivered to the German builders, due to the British blockade. The Royal Navy immediately designed a class of monitors, designed for shore bombardment, to use the turrets.

 

Raglan was laid down at the Harland and Wolff Ltd shipyard at Govan on 1 December 1914. The ship was named Robert E Lee in honour of the CSA General Robert E Lee, however as the United States was still neutral, the ship was hurriedly renamed HMS M3 on 31 May 1915. She was then named HMS Lord Raglan on 20 June 1915 and again renamed HMS Raglan on 23 June 1915.

 

Raglan sailed for the Dardanelles in June 1915. She remained in the Eastern Mediterranean, based at Imbros.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Raglan

 

On the day

 

LANCASHIRE LANDING CEMETERY

 

Country:

Turkey (including Gallipoli)

 

Location Information

Follow the road to Helles opposite the Kabatepe Museum.

 

Historical Information

The greater part of the cemetery (Rows A to J and part of Row L) was made between the landing in April 1915 and the evacuation of the peninsula in January 1916. Row I contains the graves of over 80 men of the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers who died in the first two days following the landing. The 97 graves in Row K and graves 31 to 83 in Row L were brought in after the Armistice from the following Aegean islands cemeteries:-

 

KEPHALOS BRITISH CEMETERY, on the island of Imbros (Imbroz), was 640 metres inland from Kephalos Pier. There were buried in it 84 British, Australian and New Zealand sailors and soldiers, three Greeks, and one German prisoner.

 

KUSU BAY CEMETERY, on the island of Imbros (Imbroz), contained the graves of 45 officers and men (14 of them unidentified) of the monitors Raglan and M28, which were sunk by the German battle cruiser Goeben and cruiser Breslau as they attempted to break out into the Mediterranean from the Black Sea on 20 January 1918 (both the Breslau and the Goeben later struck mines, off Cape Kephalos, which resulted in the Breslau sinking and the Goeben being grounded of Chanak).

 

PANAGHIA CHURCHYARD, on the island of Imbros (Imbroz), contained the graves of one officer and five men from the monitors and four airmen of the 62nd Wing, Royal Air Force.

 

PARASKEVI CEMETERY, near the South-West shore of the island of Tenedos (Bozcaada), contained the graves of four sailors, one soldier and one marine.

 

There are now 1,237 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 135 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate ten casualties who are known to be buried among them. The cemetery also contains 17 Greek war graves.

CWGC: www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/2000103/LANCASHIRE%...

 

Unfortunately there is no concentration report to indicate where Arthur was originally buried. The detail for that comes from a family headstone, (see above).

 

HMS Raglan sailed for the Dardanelles in June 1915. She remained in the Eastern Mediterranean, based at Imbros. On 20 January 1918,while the battleships HMS Agamemnon and HMS Lord Nelson were absent, Raglan and other members of the Detached Squadron of the Aegean Squadron were attacked by the Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim (formerly SMS Goeben), the cruiser Midilli (formerly the SMS Breslau) and four destroyers. HMS Raglan was sunk with the loss of 127 lives. The monitor HMS M28 was also sunk in the same battle. Midilli and Yavuz Sultan Selim ran into a minefield; Midilli sank and Yavuz Sultan Selim was badly damaged.

 

He was a member of the Masonic Lodge United Service No. 3124 E.C. of East Kent.

masonicgreatwarproject.org.uk/writeup.php?string=2431

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Raglan

www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1918-01Jan.htm

 

From the Norwich Mercury “In Memoria” Column in the Personal Ads, dated 23rd February 1918.

 

“PITT – In Loving memory of Arthur J.Pitt, Act. Gunner R.N., of HMS……, aged 2? Years, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Pitt, 10, Spurgeon Score, killed in action on January 20th, buried on the 26th.

 

Gods will be done

 

From his loving Father, Mother, Sister and Dorothy.”

 

The burial of the 28 year old Herbert M. Balls, a Shop Assistant of 10 Spurgeon’s Score, Lowestoft, took place at Lowestoft Cemetery on the 18th July 1918.

apps.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/pages/cemeteries/Lowestoft/abbott...

 

 

Done