EDWARD JAMES DRAY

Image courtesy of Dean.

Born: 4th June 1881, Dover, Kent.

Died: 28th June 1916; age 35; died of Pyrexia/Heat Stroke at Mesopotamia.

Residence: 90, Woodhouse Street, Ipswich.

Enlistment Location: Chatham; occupation: horse boy; religion: CofE; date:16^th June 1899 – signed up for 12 years. Height: 5ft 8ins, fresh complexion, red hair and blue eyes, with a mole on the right side of the cheek.

Service:

Pembroke II – Stoker 2^nd Class – 16^th June 1899 – 3^rd May 1900

Ocean – Stoker 2^nd Class – 4^th May 1900 – 8^th June 1900

Illustrious – Stoker 2^nd Class – 9^th June 1900

Illustrious – Stoker – 11^th November – 16^th April 1903

Ramillies – Stoker – 17^th April 1903 – 7^th October 1903

Pembroke – Stoker – 8^th October 1903 – 14^th December 1903

Audacious – Stoker – 15^th December 1903

Fisgard – Stoker – 1^st January 1904 – 7^th February 1905

Sapphire II – Stoker – 8^th February 1905

Sapphire II – Stoker 1^st Class – 1^st July 1906 – 30^th April 1907

Blenheim – Stoker 1^st Class – 1^st May 1907 – 16^th July 1909

Pembroke II – Stoker 1^st Class – 17^th July 1909 – 21^st July 1909

Implacable – Stoker 1^st Class – 22^nd July 1909 – 24^th April 1911

Pembroke II – Stoker 1^st Class – 25^th April 1911 – 16^th June 1911

Character – Very Good.

Edward joined the Royal Fleet Reserve at Chatham on the 17^th June 1911.

Pembroke II – Stoker 1^st Class – 7^th August 1914 – 10^th August 1914

Proserpine – Stoker 1^st Class – 11^th August 1914 – 28^th June 1916.

Rank: 1st Class Stoker, Service Number: Ch/292393(R.F.R.Ch.B.7741).

Regiment: Royal Navy, H.M.S. ‘Proserpine.’

Grave Reference:

III.B.1.

Makina Masul New Extension Cemetery,

Basra,

Iraq.

Relatives Notified & Address: Son of John Henry Dray, of Maple Cottage, Shepherdswell, Dover; husband of Alice Rose Dray, of 90, Woodhouse Street, St. Clement’s, Ipswich.

CENSUS

1891   Botolph Street, Sibertswold, Kent.

Edward was 9 years old and living with his father, siblings & stepmother.

John Henry Dray, 52, an Agricultural Labourer, born Hawkinge, Kent.

Fanny Dray (nee Burton), 49, born Nonington, Kent.

Fanny Dray, 10, born Alkham, Kent.

Rose May Dray, 10, born Alkham.

1901   Malta.

Edward was 19 years old, a Stoker, on board the Royal Navy H.M.S. ‘Illustrious’

1911   Gibraltar.

Edward was 29 years old, married and a Stoker on board ‘Implacable’ a battleship and part of the Atlantic Fleet.

In 1911, Edward’s wife and children were living with his in-laws at 82, Woodhouse Street, Ipswich.

James Bendall, 53.

Martha Bendall, 51.

Arthur Bendall, 16.

Alice Dray, 25.

Alice Dray, 4.

Edward Dray, 3.

Grace Dray, 1.

On the 5th October 1906, at St. Clement’s Church, Ipswich, 25 year old Edward, a Stoker for the Royal Navy, married 21 year old Alice Rose Bendall, born on Christmas Eve, 1885, Ipswich – daughter of James Richard Bendall, a blacksmith at a boiler foundry, and Martha Bendall (nee Wardley), of 82, Woodhouse Street, Ipswich.

Alice and Edward had six children:

Alice Rose Eugenia Dray, January 1907, Ipswich.

Edward James Dray, May 1908, Ipswich.

Grace Lily Dray, February 1910, Ipswich.

Arthur Frederick Dray, January 1912, Ipswich.

Patricia Beatrice Dray, September 1913, Eastry, Kent.

Kathleen D. Dray, February 1915, Elham, Kent.

The Dray family later resided at 49, Marshall Street, Folkestone, Kent.

Edward’s mother was Sarah Dray (nee Prescott), born 1884, Swingfield, Kent – died 1886, Dover, Kent.

Edward’s stepmother, Fanny Dray, died in 1914, Dover, Kent.

Edward’s father, John Henry Dray, died in December 1917, Dover, Kent.

H.M.S. ‘Proserpine’

HMS Proserpine was a light cruiser sent to Egypt in 1914. Bound for Basra, she travelled down the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, then sailed onto the Persian Gulf to Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. The ship’s role was to escort and protect shipping from the threat of Turkish and German attacks on the sea and waterways of the Persian Gulf. Temperatures in the summer months could exceed 40+ degrees, with a high risk of waterborne diseases. On the day Edward died, there were 72 crewmembers recorded on the ship’s sick list.

Ships log:

28th June 1916

Mohammerah
Lat 30.4, Long 48.2
1.35 pm: Edward James Dray, stoker, departed this life, heat stroke

4.0pm: HMS FLYCATCHER arrived

4.30 pm: HMS MOTH made fast alongside

5.5pm: HMS MOTH sailed

Number on sick list = 72