ABERCROMBIE Cecil Halliday Lieutenant, HMS Defence, Royal Navy. Lost with his ship 31st May 1916. Aged 29. Born 12th April 1886, Mozufferpore, India. Son of Walter D. Abercrombie (Indian Police) and Kate E. Abercrombie; husband of Cecily Joan Abercrombie (nee Baker), of 22, Cottesmore Gardens, Kensington, London. Scottish Rugby International. Played cricket for Hampshire. No known grave. Commemorated on PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, Devon. Panel 10. Note: HMS Defence was a Minotaur-class armoured cruiser of the Royal Navy, launched in 1907. She was the last armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy. She was the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot, leading the First Cruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. The other ships of the squadron (HMS Warrior, HMS Duke of Edinburgh, and HMS Black Prince) were of a similar outmoded class. While closing for the kill at high speed with the SMS Wiesbaden, drifting and crippled between the German and British fleets, Defence presented a target for the combined firepower of the German battlecruisers, whose proximity was hidden by smoke and mist. After initial damage she was struck by a salvo which blew up her after magazine, triggering explosions on the ammunition rails leading to the broadside 7.5 inch guns. Within seconds, another salvo immediately hit forward, and she blew up in a spectacular explosion, sinking with the loss of Arbuthnot and her entire complement of 903 men. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack - Born in India on April 12, 1886, was killed aged 30 in the naval action off Jutland on May 31, 1916, while serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy on HMS Defence. He played 13 games for Hampshire in 1913, scoring 126 and 39 on his debut against Oxford University at Southampton, 144 v Worcestershire at Dudley and 165 v Essex at Leyton when Hampshire followed on 317 behind and in a stand with George Brown (140*) he put on 325 for the seventh wicket. In first-class matches that year he scored 936 runs with an average of 35.92. By 1914 he was already away on service, so his fame rests on what he accomplished in a single season. In 1912 he gave an earlier indication of his ability as a free-scoring batsmen when he hit 37 and 100 for the Royal Navy v Army at Lord's. He also played Rugby football for Scotland.
