1st. PETTY OFFICER HENRY SYMES: 121075
Royal Navy HMS Newmarket
Henry was one of Bridport’s oldest WW1 casualties.
He was born in April 1867 and spent his early life with his parents William and Ann , and six younger brothers and sisters in East Street and South Street.
Both his parents worked in the rope and net industry and aged 14, Henry was already at work – joining them as a twine manufacturing assistant.
However, like many before him, Henry left the industry and Bridport to join the Royal Navy, enlisting for ten years’ service in April 1885. He re-enlisted in 1895 and continued his service with the Navy until ‘completion.’
His service started at the land base HMS Boscawen and he was promoted through the ranks , reaching 1st Petty Officer in 1897.
In April 1893, Henry married a local Bridport girl – Rose Woodward and in 1901 they had their first child – a daughter named Bessie . Three more children were born to Henry and Rose, but only Bessie and younger sister Annie survived infancy.
At the time of Bessie’s birth, Henry and his family were living in Portsmouth and when he retired from the Navy, they remained in the town where Henry worked as a Commission Agent in the boat trade.
Henry had joined the Royal Naval Reserve in 1905 and with the outbreak of war he was recalled to service , joining HMS Newmarket in January 1915.
HMS Newmarket was an auxiliary minesweeper and in July 1917 when patrolling the Aegean Sea, just south of Nikaria Island, the vessel was struck by a torpedo fired from the German submarine UC-38. She sank, with the loss of all but three of her crew.
Henry was one of the seventy men who lost their lives.
He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial and remembered on a plaque in the Unitarian Chapel Bridport.
