William Stone RIP

Kyt · Jan 12, 2009

William Stone: veteran of the First World War | Times Online Obituary

William Stone served in the Royal Navy in both world wars and was one of the last survivors of the Great War. He was the tenth of 14 children, two of his brothers joining the Navy and two others the Army. His eldest brother, in the Royal Horse Artillery, left for India in 1908 and was never heard from again. Sent out to work on a nearby farm at 13, William wanted to join the Navy when he reached 15 but his father refused to sign the papers, saying that two sons in the Navy was enough and that he was too young.

Thus it was that he had to wait until his 18th birthday before joining up and was under training as a stoker at Plymouth at the end of the Great War, thereby just qualifying as the last naval person to have served in both world wars.

He recalled being in hospital with flu on the day that the war ended. “Thousands of sailors died of flu in Plymouth. They just keeled over on parade. I was given 14 days’ leave when I told the doctor I was all right — it got you out of the hospital. It was terrible.” More died of this epidemic worldwide than were killed in the war.

His first ship was the battlecruiser Tiger, one of Admiral Beatty’s “Splendid Cats”, which had seen action at the Dogger Bank and Jutland. Tiger was at Scapa Flow when on June 21, 1919, the interned German High Seas Fleet scuttled itself rather than be subjected to the terms of the Armistic. Stone recalled that many funnels and masts stuck up above sea level. It was while he was in Tiger that he set himself up as the ship’s barber, not realising that this would become a lifetime occupation and a second career after leaving the Navy.

A highlight of Stone’s inter-war years was a posting to the battlecruiser Hood. Completed in 1920 to a 1915 design, she had a pleasing balance and symmetry that made her the most handsome of the capital ships. Stone was lucky enough to be on board during her celebrated World Empire Cruise in company with the battlecruiser Repulse and five light cruisers. From November 1924 to September 1925 this was a rare “showing the Flag” circumnavigation that visited many outposts of Empire. Other appointments included destroyers on the home station, the carrier Eagle at Malta (where he cut the hair of General Franco’s aviator brother) and a cruiser based at Simonstown, South Africa.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Stone was the stoker chief petty officer of the minesweeper Salamander which took part in the Dunkirk evacuation, making five trips in all, rescuing 200 to 300 men each time. “Things got worse each trip we made. Our final trip was on June 1 by which stage there was the wreckage of sunken ships all around and burning oil tanks by the dockside. Lines of troops were all marching towards the sea. Near by, our sister ship Skipjack was dive-bombed and capsized with 200 men on board. I had to say, ‘God, help us’. I believe to this day that He did.”

In August 1941 Salamander provided close anti-submarine protection to the first, and on this occasion, uneventful, convoy to Russia, the start of the protracted and costly Anglo-American campaign to supply the Red Army through Murmansk.

Stone was next appointed to the cruiser Newfoundland, then being built at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, getting to sea in December 1942 and taking part in several bombardment operations in the Mediterranean. Off the North African coast during Operation Husky, the Allied invasion, Newfoundland was torpedoed and had to make for America for repairs. Stone was awarded a mention in dispatches for his efficient services.

Returning to Britain in 1944, he was shore-based until the end of the war in Europe. In May 1945, wearing khaki uniform and after “a week’s revolver training”, Stone was sent to guard the island of Sylt off the German coast against disturbances. He was demobilised in September after 27 years’ service.

He ran a barber’s and tobacconist’s shop in Paignton, Devon, for 22 years. A lively member of veterans organisations, he was the senior member of the Hood Association. His wife, Lily Hoskin, whom he married in 1938, died in 1995. He is survived by their daughter.

Stoker Chief Petty Officer William Stone was born on September 23, 1900. He died on January 10, 2009, aged 108
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Antipodean Andy · Jan 12, 2009

A cracking innings full of adventure. RIP.

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William Stone RIP

Kyt Άρης

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