FEREDAY, Thomas Harold

Thomas Fereday was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Fereday of, 17 Trinity Street, Brierley Hill and had been employed at the Earl of Dudley's iron-works. He enlisted in the navy before 1914 and was a Stoker First Class serving on HMS Hogue, a pre-Dreadnought armoured cruiser. Together with her sister ships, Cressy and Aboukir, she was sunk by submarine attack on the 22nd September 1914. It was a naval disaster, only six weeks after the outbreak of war, which brought home to both the navy and the public just how serious a threat submarines could be. These three ships had been stationed not far off the neutral Dutch coast to deter the German High Seas fleet from entering the Channel. Their vulnerability had been eventually realised, not least by Winston Churchill as First Sea Lord. However, orders requiring the ships to retire to British waters were delayed and by then it was too late. A German submarine, U 9, attacked the Aboukir at 7.30 a.m. on 22nd September and a single torpedo was responsible for its sinking. The Hogue stood by to rescue the crew and was sunk by another torpedo. In turn, the Cressy gallantly attempted to rescue the survivors, while firing at a periscope. Thirty minutes later three torpedoes were launched by U 9. The first had little effect, the second missed but the third hit the hull, causing the ship to heel over. The losses from the three vessels were 1459 men dead while 837 were saved by Dutch vessels and British trawlers. Stoker Thomas Fereday was 26 years of age and is commemorated on the Chatham Royal Naval Memorial and on the Brierley Hill and Brierley Hill church Memorials.