Dover Patrol !

[KeithG]

Thanks for the input...
That certainly is a good explanation Lyn.
I shall go again next weekend and try and find more from HMS Violet.... there were also many other vessels mentioned on other gravestones so perhaps an interesting theme to follow.

[MartinR]

Good point Lyn.  WWI killed 9m combatants, and 13m civilians.  Spanish 'flu killed between 17-50m, possibly even as many as 100m.

[Lyn L]

Could all these men have died from the Flu epidemic which was rife in 1918. Only wondering  no idea otherwise.
My late hubby's Grandfather was a Stoker in the RN ,  admittedly he died in Bombay in 1917  but it was Hepatitis he died from , seems a lot of men died of illness rather than wounds sadly

[KeithG]

I have a couple of pictures :

[MartinR]

Wiki has a tiny amount about her (including a photo of a scale model), but nothing that explains any deaths or repairs around June 1918. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Violet_(1897)

[KeithG]

I have just been up to Connaught Cemetery Dover which is only one road away and I found a War Grave for  22yr old who was on HMS Violet in June 1918 in fact I found a further 5 or even more if looked more carefully.
I found the C Class Destroyer operating with the Dover Force Patrol around early 1918 but cannot find why all these men died while with this vessel around June 1918.
Further probing says the vessel was being repaired in June that year but no reason.....?
Does anyone have information please?

[castle261]

My father, a Scottish fisherman, was drafted into the Royal Navy 1914, then the Dover Patrol.
He was blown up four times, survived, married my mother, then settled in Scotland & Chatham.