ROBERT ABBOTT
Born: 28th February 1885, Ipswich.
Died: 22nd September 1914; age 29; Drowned in the North Sea when H.M.S.’Cressy’ was sunk by a German submarine.
Residence: Ipswich.
Occupation: a Labourer.
Enlistment Location:Chatham; Date: 21st August 1900. On turning 18 years on the 28th February 1903 – signed up for 12 years. Height at 18 years – 5ft 6ins, ruddy complexion, blue eyes & light brown hair.
Service:
Ganges – Boy 2nd Class – 21st August 1900
Ganges – Boy 1st Class – 23rd May 1901 – 20th June 1901
Minotaur – Boy 1st Class – 21st June 1901 – 1st August 1901
Ganges – Boy 1st Class – 2nd August 1901 – 10th October 1901
Minotaur – Boy 1st Class – 11th October 1901 – 4th February 1902
Agincourt – Boy 1st Class – 5th February 1902 – 26th February 1902
Royal Arthur – Boy 1st Class – 27th February 1902
Royal Arthur – Ordinary Seaman – 28th February 1903 – 30th June 1903
Sparrow – Ordinary Seaman – 1st July 1903 – 31st March 1904
Pembroke – Ordinary Seaman – 1st April 1904
Pembroke – Able Seaman – 1st May 1904 – 2nd December 1904
Vernon – Able Seaman – 3rd December 1904 – 30th June 1905
Pembroke I – Able Seaman – 1st July 1905 – 10th August 1905
Pembroke II – Able Seaman – 11th August 1905 – 30th June 1906
Leander – Able Seaman – 1st July 1906 – 26th June 1907
Blake – Able Seaman – 27th June 1907 – 20th May 1909
Pembroke I – Able Seaman – 21st May 1909 – 28th May 1909
Actaeon – Able Seaman – 29th May 1909 – 3rd September 1909
Pembroke – Able Seaman – 4th September 1909 – 12th September 1909
Blenheim – Able Seaman – 13th September 1912 – 30th April 1912
Hecla – Able Seaman – 1st May 1912 – 19th September 1912
Pembroke I – Able Seaman – 20th September 1912 – 27th September 1912
Albion – Able Seaman – 28th September 1912 – 1st April 1913
Pembroke – Able Seaman – 2nd April 1913 – 6th May 1913
Hermes – Able Seaman – 7th May 1913 – 23rd December 1913
Pembroke I – Able Seaman – 24th December 1913 – 6th February 1914
Cressy – Able Seaman – 7th February 1914 – 22nd September 1914.
Character – Very Good.
Rank: Able Seaman; Service Number: 211311
Regiment: Royal Navy, H.M.S. ‘Cressy.’
Memorial Reference:
1.
Chatham,
Kent.
Relatives Notified & Address: Son of the late Robert Abbott; husband of Alice Maud Mary Woods (formerly Abbott), of High House, Foxhall, Suffolk.
CENSUS
1891 26, Fore Hamlet, Ipswich.
Robert was 5 years old and living with his parents & sisters.
Robert James Henry Abbott, 30, a Sail Maker, born Ipswich.
Mary Ann Abbott (nee Chaplin), 28, born Claydon, Suffolk.
Mary Ann Abbott, 8, born Ipswich.
Eliza Abbott, 4, born Ipswich.
Alice Abbott, 2, born Ipswich.
1901 Harwich, Essex.
Robert was 16 years old, and a boy 2nd Class of the Royal Navy ‘Granges’ First Class Training Ship.
1911 The Dockyard, Chatham, Kent.
Robert was 26 years old, he was married and an Able Seaman of the Royal Navy ‘Afridi’ Torpedo Boat Destroyer – 1st Destroyer Flotilla.
On the 1911 census Robert’s wife, Alice was a Corset Machinist at a Corset Manufacturer, she was living with her parents at their home, 296, Cavendish Street, Ipswich with her daughter & sister.
In 1904, Robert married Alice Maud Mary Warren, a corset machinist, born 1877, St. Helen’s, Ipswich – daughter of Samuel Alfred Warren, a corn merchant’s labourer, and Mary Ann Warren (nee Warren), of 298, Cavendish Street, Ipswich.
Alice and Robert had one daughter:
Mary Constance Abbott, born 1909, Holy Trinity, Ipswich.
Robert is also remembered on the war memorial at St. Clement’s Congregational Church, and at on the memorial at Holy Trinity Church, Ipswich.
22nd September 1914
The three ships Cressy Abourkir and the Hogue were on patrol without an escort seeking shelter from bad weather off Ostend steaming 2,000 yards apart at 10 knots. German U-boat U-9 commanded by Kapitanleutnant Otto Weddigen spotted the ships and lined up for an attack U-9 fired one torpedo at 06:20 at Aboukir which struck her on the starboard side. She began listing and capsized around 06:55,
Hogue was struck by two torpedoes around 06:55 and capsized ten minutes after being torpedoed and sank at 07:15.HMS Cressy had spotted U-9 attempted to ram the submarine.U-9 fired two torpedoes from its stern tubes on making an escape from Cressy, but only one hit. U-9 had to manoeuvre to bring her bow around with her last torpedo and fired it at a range of about 550 yards at 07:30. The torpedo struck on the port side and ruptured several boilers, scalding to death the men in the compartment. HMS Cressy took on a heavy list and then capsized, sinking at 07:55. At 08:30 Small fishing craft Dutch and British trawlers picked up survivors 837 men were rescued and 62 officers. From the three ships it is estimated 1,397 enlisted men were lost, 560 of those lost were from HMS Cressy.
Ipswich men lost:
Robert Abbott
H.M.S Cressy
Able Seaman age 29
Alfred Edward Barber
H.M.S. ‘Aboukir’
Able Seaman age 32
Charles Valentine Garrod
H.M.S. ‘Aboukir’
Able Seaman age 32
Reuben John Sewell
H.M.S. ‘Hogue’
Petty Officer age 30
Charles Alfred Larking
H.M.S. ‘Cressy’
Able Seaman age 33
H.M.S. CRESSY
other information:
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