Great War Lives Lost

The special service ship HMS Cullist (also known as HMS Westphalia) is torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-97 in the Irish Sea. Two Lieutenants killed have been previously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. A total of five officers, twenty seven ratings, two members of the Royal Marine Light Infantry and nine merchant marine reservists are lost in the sinking.

• Sub Lieutenant George Hambrook Dean Doubleday DSC is killed at age 22. He is the third son of the Reverend John Doubleday.
• Engineer Lieutenant Neil Shaw MacKinnon (Royal Naval Reserve) is also killed at age 40.

Also sunk today when torpedoed in the English Channel by U-53 is the steamer Merton Hall (Master A Cameron). Her crew suffers fifty seven fatal casualties including her master. Also lost is

• Able Seaman Herbert Lawrence (Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve) whose son will be killed serving in the Royal Naval Air Force Reserve in the Second World War.

Today’s losses include:

• A Victoria Cross winner
• A member of the clergy
• Two Naval Lieutenants both winners of the Distinguished Service Cross
• A man whose son will be killed in the Second World War

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

• Lieutenant Colonel Neville Bowes Elliott-Cooper VC DSO MC (commanding 8^th Royal Fusiliers) dies as a prisoner of war at age 29. He is the son of ‘Sir’ Robert Elliott-Cooper KCB and was awarded his Victoria Cross for efforts last 30^th
• Lieutenant (Intelligence Officer) the Reverend Robert Hellier (Nyasaland Field Force attached King’s Own Africa Rifles) dies of wounds in Portuguese Africa at age 33.
• Private Ernest Charles Day (Bedfordshire Regiment) dies of wounds received in action at age 24. His brother was killed in May 1917.