Circumstances of Death
Wilfred was either killed in the below described accidental explosion or was drowned as his ship, HMS Vanguard, sank instantly. The following is taken from Wikipedia:
HMS Vanguard in 1910
The HMS Vanguard anchored in Scapa Flow at about 18:30 on 9 July 1917 after having spent the morning exercising general evolutions concluding practising the routine for abandoning ship. The Captain made a speech to the ship's company in which he stated that under present conditions a ship would either blow up in a matter of seconds, or would take several hours to sink. Practically this meant that all would go down with the ship or that everybody would be saved. It is a remarkable coincidence that his words were to be so tragically proved in less than 12 hours. There is no record of anyone detecting anything amiss until the first detonation at 23:20. Vanguard sank almost instantly, with only three of the crew surviving, one of whom died soon afterwards. A total of 843 men were lost, including two Australian stokers from the light cruiser HMAS Sydney who were serving time in the battleship's brig. Another casualty was Captain Kyōsuke Eto, a military observer from the Imperial Japanese Navy, which was allied with the Royal Navy at the time through the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The bodies of 17 of the 22 men recovered after the explosion, plus that of Lieutenant Commander Alan Duke, who died after being rescued, were buried at the Royal Naval Cemetery at Lyness, not far from the site of the explosion. The others are commemorated on the Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth Naval Memorials.
Read more here.
Naval Service History
- 13 Dec 1898 - Enlisted as a Boy 2nd Class (HMS Impregnable)
- 8 Sep 1899 - Boy 1st Class (HMS Prince)
- 8 Nov 1901 - Ordinary Seaman (HMS Jupiter)
- 1 Oct 1902 - Able Seaman (HMS Vengence)
- 10 May 1905 - Leading Seaman (HMS Pembroke I)
- 1 Jun 1906 - Petty Officer 2nd Class (HMS Egeria)
- 1 Aug 1914 - Petty Officer (HMS Vanguard)
Wilfred also served on ten other ships or establishments: HMS Lion; HMS Black Prince; HMS Minotaur; HMS Agincourt; HMS Duke of Wellington; HMS Balfour; HMS Wildfire; HMS Agamemnon; HMS Highflyer and HMS Cressy.
Newspaper Obituary
Stratford on Avon Herald - 20 July 1917
LOSS OF THE VANGUARD - NATIVE OF TIDDINGTON AMONG THE VICTIMS
Of the eight hundred men who perished on the British Dreadnought "Vanguard", the destruction of which was officially announced on Friday night appears the name of Petty Officer Wilfred Rawlings, a native of Tiddington. A seafaring life had been his ambition from schoolboy days and when 14½ he obtained admission to the training ship Warspite. Though under age he was transferred to the Royal Navy the same year, serving successively on HMS Lion and HMS Vengence. For three and a half years his ship was in Chinese and Japanese waters and during the Russo-Japanese conflict the Vengence was instrumental in landing the survivors of a Russian man-of-war that had met with disaster.
He was then transferred to HMS Egeria, a survey vessel in the North American station and, after two years service in this locality, was recommended as second-class Petty Officer. The following two years were spent in home waters on HMS Agamemnon and he was then transferred to the Highflyer which was commissioned as the flagship for Admiral Slade for the Indian Station. By a melancholy coincidence Captain James D. Dick R.N. was at that time serving as Commander of the Highflyer.
Having participated in the suppression of gun running in the Persian Gulf Petty Officer Rawlings obtained his first-class rating, with medal and ribbon. The ill-fated Cressy was the next scene of his labours, and in the early months of 1914 he was transferred to the Vanguard. He was at the wheel during the Battle of Jutland, in which the Vanguard took a leading part, and emerged the conflict with flying colours.
Petty Officer Rawlings, who held a medal for Good Conduct, had lately completed nineteen years service and his tragic death art the age of thirty-three will be generally regretted. Much sympathy is felt for the widow, his little daughter and other relatives.
