I found William Fletcher by adding “Shotton” in the “Additional Information” on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website on the eve of Remembrance Day 2020.
William Fletcher was born on the 31st May 1908 according to his UK, British Army and Navy Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1730-1960 and the UK, Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, 1848-1939 for William Fletcher, both are below.
William was the son of Thomas Elwell & Fanny Fletcher who had married, I believe in the March quarter of 1900 (Staffordshire Vol: 6b Page: 706). William was baptised according to the Ellesmere Port Parish Register: – Page 39 No. 310 Born 31st May 1908 Bapt. 24th June 1908 William s/o Thomas Elegell (sic)& Fanny FLETCHER, 6, Grosvenor Street, Ellesmere Port, Ironworker.
The 1911 census shows Thomas Elwell & Fanny Fletcher living at 128, Church Street, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire (5 rooms). Thomas Elwell Fletcher, 33, was head of the household and he tells us that he is a Sheet Mill Shearer (Corregated Ironworks) and had been born in Bradley, Staffs. His wife Fanny, 32, had been born in Willenhall, Staffordshire. They had been married 11 years and 4 children had been born to them, all still living. They were Jane, 7, Thomas Allen, 5, William 2 and Robert, 4 months, all had been born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. Also in the household were Fanny’s brothers, William Seager ,26 and an Assistant Furnaceman (Corregated Ironworks) and Joseph, 17 , a Labourer in the Corregated Ironworks, both single and born in Willenhall, Cheshire.
Sadly Fanny died during the 1918 Flu Pandemic and was buried on the 26th July 1918 in St. Deniol’s Churchyard, age 39 years. Her address was given as Queensferry. A lovely remembrance of Fanny was that she was a kind woman and she cooked for the less well off in her street in times of hardship. (Information is from her Grandson Peter Allen, many thanks to him.)
I do not have any information on William’s early and teen years, but his Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services tells us that he enlisted on the 8th June 1926 age 18, and there is a short description of William:- Height 5 foot 8 inches, Chest 35, Hair Black, Eyes Brown and with a fresh complexion. This document also tells us that before he joined the Royal Navy, he was a Marker (Galvanizer Sheet). It also tells us that his first Ship in June 1926 as Stoker ll was the Victory ll (I think a training ship or station), then the Conquest on the 6th December 1926 then on the 8th January 1927 he was a Stoker l till 6th April 1928, then transferred to Cyclops (Douglas) on the 6th April 1928. It appears that he was transferred again in June 1929, which is where the information stops.
However he met and married Doreen Phyllis Drew on the 2nd August 1937 in Loders, Dorset, Doreen was 23 years old and her father was Albert Edward Drew (Dorset Vol. No. 5a Page 1121).
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Citation states that Doreen Phyllis Fletcher was from or lived in Shotton, Flintshire, I was having difficulty finding the connection, but again Peter Allen was able to clarify where Doreen Phyllis was from, it appears she was from Poole, in Dorset and she lived with her parents when William was a way at sea.
The 1921 census gives us a better insight into the family, they were living at 56, Queens Street, Queensferry, Flintshire. This source gives more information, age in years and months, school attendance and if a parent has died, so confirming Fanny’s death. Thomas E. Fletcher was head of the household, age 44 years and 8 months, widowed a Sheet Shearer at Summers Iron & Steel Works, Shotton, Flintshire, but out of work*and born in Handley, Staffs. His children were Jane Fletcher was 17 years and 9 months old, single and she had been born in Willenhall, Staffs and her work was “At Home.” Thomas A. Fletcher was 15 years and 9 months old, and had no regular place of work, so was described as “No Fixed Place.” William Fletcher, age 13 years exactly, and Robert Fletcher was 10 years 7 months old, both had been born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. Joseph Fletcher, 6 years 8 months old and Eleanor M. Fletcher was 4 years 10 months old, both had been born in Queensferry, Flintshire. The last 4 children was described as in Whole time school and that their Mother was dead. Their Uncle Joseph Seager was 26 years and 3 months old, was single and like Thomas A. Fletcher had no regular place of work, so was described as “No Fixed Place.” He had been born in Willenhall, Staffs.
*According to the Leader there was a Miner’s strike in 1921 and thanks to https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/15931464.pioneers-forged-and-cast-our-industrial-heritage/ we know it was because of the Miner’s Strike in 1921:-
“After the war the 1921 Miners’ Strike and the 1926 General Strike both forced the steelworks to close and in the 1930s reduced demand during the Great Depression led to the works being bankrupt and steelmaking at Brymbo ceased between 1931 and 1934.
The works was saved from demolition thanks to the efforts of Sir Henry Robertson whose new company took it out of administration.”
I did find Thomas Elwell Fletcher and William’s sister Eleanor May Fletcher living at 18 The Nook, Little Mancot, Flintshire, on the 1939 National Register which was taken on the 29th September 1939. This source gives us dates of birth and employment details. Thomas E. Fletcher had been born on the 11th November 1876 and he was a Gas Man Iron Worker and widowed, which confirms Willam’s mother’s death 21 years earlier. William’s sister Eleanor May Fletcher* had been born on the 29th August 1916 and she was single and her occupation was a “Daily Domestic.”
*Eleanor May was baptised at Dt. Deniol’s Church on the 21st December 1916 and confirms her birth date as above: – Eleanor May d/o Thomas Elwell & Fanny FLETCHER, 51, Queen Street**, Queensferry, Ironworker.
**2 doors away from my Aunt Bertha and Uncle John BARKER, who lived at No. 49 and whose daughter Alice was Baptised on the same day.
The 1939 National Register also tells us that she married a gentleman named DOYLE and I found a marriage to a Benjamin T. Doyle at St. Deniol’s Church, Hawarden in 1939. (Flintshire (Mold) C106/05/E61).
According to the Family Tree of SHBarley on Ancestry – https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/87086374/person/420104124833/facts – In later years Eleanor May had married again to Samuel Leonard Allen in December 1972 at Hawarden (Hawarden Vol. 8A Page 968).
Samuel was the widower of Jane Allen (nee Fletcher), (William & Eleanor May’s sister) who had married on the 7th August 1922 at Hawarden, sadly she died in September 1969.
William though was to find himself on H.M.S. Gloworm and it is hard to imagine what he went through, but sadly I do believe that he died in the boiler explosion. – an extract from the link below from Wikipedia – “Glowworm was on fire when she drifted clear and her boilers exploded at 10:24, taking 109 of her crew with her.[8]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Glowworm_(H92)
HMS Glowworm (H92) – Final battle
On the morning of 8 April 1940 Glowworm was on her way to rejoin Renown when she encountered the German destroyers Z11 Bernd von Arnim and Z18 Hans Lüdemann in the heavy fog before 8:00 a.m. The destroyers were part of a German naval detachment, led by the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, on its way to land troops at Trondheim as part of the German invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung). Glowworm opened fire and the German destroyers attempted to disengage, signalling for help. The request was soon answered by Admiral Hipper which spotted Glowworm at 09:50. Hipper initially had difficulty in distinguishing Glowworm from von Arnim, but opened fire eight minutes later at a range of 8,400 metres (9,200 yd) with her 20.3-centimetre (8.0 in) main guns. Glowworm was hit by Hipper’s fourth salvo and she started making smoke. She turned into her own smoke in an attempt to break visual contact with Hipper, but the cruiser’s radar-directed guns were not affected by the smoke. When the destroyer emerged from her smoke the range was now short enough that the cruiser’s 10.5-centimetre (4.1 in) guns could fire. Glowworm’s radio room, bridge, and forward 4.7-inch gun were all destroyed, and she received additional hits in the engine room, the captain’s day cabin, and finally the mast. As this crashed down, it caused a short circuit of the wiring, causing the ship’s siren to start a banshee wail.
Lieutenant Commander Gerard Broadmead Roope, awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross
At 10:10, Lieutenant Commander Gerard Broadmead Roope fired five torpedoes from one mounting at a range of 800 metres (870 yd), but all missed because Captain Hellmuth Heye had kept Hipper’s bow pointed at Glowworm throughout the battle to minimize his risk from torpedoes. The destroyer fell back through her smoke screen to buy time to get her second torpedo mount working, but Heye followed Glowworm through the smoke to finish her off before she could fire the rest of her torpedoes. The two ships were very close when Hipper emerged from the smoke and Roope ordered a hard turn to starboard to ram the cruiser. Hipper was slow to answer her helm and Glowworm struck the cruiser just abaft the anchor. The collision broke off Glowworm’s bow and the rest of the ship scraped along Hipper’s side, gouging open several holes in the latter’s hull and destroying her forward starboard torpedo mounting. One German sailor was knocked overboard by the collision. Hipper took on some 500 tonnes (490 long tons) of water before the leaks could be isolated, but was not seriously damaged. Glowworm was on fire when she drifted clear and her boilers exploded at 10:24, taking 109 of her crew with her.[8]
Admiral Hipper hove to in order to rescue her man overboard and Glowworm’s survivors. The German sailor was not found, but 40 British sailors were recovered, although at least six later died of their wounds. Lieutenant Ramsay, the senior surviving officer, told his rescuers that neither the helm nor the emergency rudder were manned when the ships collided so the destroyer’s turn towards Hipper was probably accidental. German accounts only mention four torpedoes fired by Glowworm, but British accounts say all ten were fired. This was confirmed by photographic evidence taken after the collision showing all of her torpedo tubes empty.[9]
Roope, who drowned when he could no longer hang on to a rope whilst being pulled up the side of the cruiser, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, thus becoming the first VC recipient of the Second World War.[10] The award was justified, in part, by the recommendation of Heye, who wrote to the British authorities via the Red Cross, giving a statement of the valiant courage Roope had shown when engaging a much superior ship in close battle. Ramsay was also awarded the DSO. Both awards were made after the end of the war.[10][11]
Also :-
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_HMSGlowworm.html – HMS Glowworm
And :-
https://www.navyhistory.org.au/tag/hms-glowworm/ – The Loss of HMS Glowworm: an Australian Connection
And:-
https://ww2today.com/captain-of-hms-glowworm-wins-first-vc-of-the-war – Captain of HMS Glowworm wins first VC of the War
And:-
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/12/08/famous-navy-ships-the-hms-glowworm/ – HMS Glowworm, a G-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy, became instrumental during World War II’s Norwegian Campaign.
Peter Allen, William’s nephew, told me: -“ I think his wife may have lived with her parents in Poole Dorset while he was at sea. I know that she worked as a secretary associated with the navy down south throughout the war and married a naval officer when the war ended and went to live in California soon after the end of the war. Bill’s son and his half sister still live there, somewhere near Los Angeles. When Bill was on leave he would stay with my parents in Connah’s Quay until he got married. I do not know where he lived after that, but I do not think he ever had his own house.” He also told me that William had been involved with patrols on the Yangtze River in China. (Many thanks to Peter Allen.)
I hope that William (Bill) will at some point be remembered on a WW2 War Memorial, when I can get enough interest in the project, but he must be remembered.
