19/08/2024
Last week there were various news reports about the discovery of the wreck of HMS Hawke in the North Sea 70 miles east of the Scottish coast (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qg4z1149eo). There was a Runnymede connection through one of the survivors, Harry Cecil Thomas Evitt.
HMS Hawke, a Royal Navy cruiser, sank in less than eight minutes with the loss of 524 lives after she was torpedoed by a German U-boat on 15 October 1914. Harry was one of 70 survivors who were rescued by a Norwegian steamer and landed at Aberdeen on the following day.
Harry was born in Brixton in 1879 and was an errand boy before he joined the Royal Navy in 1897, serving all over the world in a career ending in 1922. His posting to HMS Hawke in June 1914 was his first as a gunnery warrant officer. He survived another sinking in 1917 while on board HMS Ben-my-Chree - a seaplane carrier destroyed by Turkish artillery while she was anchored offshore in the Eastern Mediterranean. Harry was mentioned in dispatches for his involvement in that action. He received his commission when he was recalled to the Royal Navy on the outbreak of the Second World War. He served in home waters throughout the war.
Harry married his wife Bertha at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Chertsey in 1906 and he became a Methodist lay preacher there. He and Bertha had a son and two daughters. They moved to Ottercroft, Chobham Road, Ottershaw in 1934 and Harry became a churchwarden and lay preacher at Christchurch. He took a keen interest in Ottershaw’s local affairs and activities, notably with the Old Folks Club and the British Legion. He served as a councillor on Chertsey Council for a short time before his death in 1959. In its obituary notice The Surrey Advertiser recorded “With his jovial and friendly disposition, added to his keen sense of public service, he gained the esteem and affection of Ottershaw’s residents and will be greatly missed.”
Article by Jim Knight
