WW1 100 YEARS ON - A COASTGUARD REMEMBERED
Coastguards from Whitby are attending a service to
commemorate those who died in the German Bombardment of Whitby 100 years ago
today. For HM Coastguard, this is an
especially sad day as Coastguard Frederick Randall was killed in the
attack.
During World War One nearly two thousand Coastguards died at
sea with 1,459 lost in one battle alone.
Frederick Randall is the only Coastguard who died during the war who is
buried on land and the Whitby team will paying their own personal respects to
their predecessor who gave his life.
This is an account of the attack that has been provided to
us.
GERMAN BOMBARDMENT OF WHITBY 16 DECEMBER 1914
THE STORY OF A COASTGUARD FATALITY
 |
| The funeral of Coastguard Randall |
During the opening months of the
First World War the Imperial German Navy was seeking opportunities to draw out
sections of the British Fleet which it could trap and destroy. Rear Admiral Franz Hipper, the commander of
the German Battlecruiser Squadron, proposed a series of raids on English east
coast towns might produce the required effect.
The first targets identified were Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool and
the submarine U-17 was sent to investigate the areas and to reconnoitre the
existing coastal defences.
Hipper's force
included the battlecruisers SMS’ Seydlitz, Von
der Tann, Moltke
and Derfflinger;
the slightly smaller armoured cruiser SMS Blücher,
four light
cruisers SMS’ Strassburg, Graudenz,
Kolberg
and Stralsund
and 18 destroyers.
Ingenohl took the 85 ships of the German
High
Seas Fleet to a position just east of the Dogger Bank,
where they could assist if Hipper's ships came under attack from larger forces,
but were still safely close to Germany as standing orders from the Kaiser
instructed. At 0300 hours on the 15th of
December, the ships left the Jade River and headed out across the North
Sea.
Approaching the English coast in
the early hours of the 16th of December, the force split up – the Sydlitz the Moltke and the Blücher
proceeded to Hartlepool, whilst the Von
der Tann and the Derfflinger,
accompanied by the Kolberg approached
Scarborough, (the destroyers and the
other three light cruisers had been ordered back to port as a precaution). At 0800, whilst the Kolberg laid mines off Flamborough Head, the two battlecruisers
opened fire on the town. Extensive
damage was done to prominent buildings including: Scarborough Castle, the Grand Hotel, several
churches and the Railway Station; as well as numerous private dwellings and
shops. Over 500 shells were fired
causing 42 deaths, with 153 injured. At
0830 the bombardment stopped and the battlecruisers moved northwards towards
Whitby. The following extract from the
Whitby Times best describes the subsequent chain of events:
“Whitby is
still throbbing with excitement over the bombardment of the town in the morning
hours of Wednesday, and a considerable number of householders sent their wives
and children out of the place by the afternoon trains, to remain out of the way
until safety seems assured. in view of the fact that at least a hundred shells
were fired into the town, it is remarkable that only two persons were killed,
and only one seriously injured. Many
people had extraordinary escapes, for about thirty houses were wrecked or
seriously damaged, but most of the inmates were only hit by flying
splinters. The cannonade lasted about
seven minutes, and during that time the shells came hurtling over the town with
a noise like that of claps of thunder, and with scarcely recognisable intervals
between the shots.
POWERFUL BATTLE CRUISERS
It was five
minutes past nine o'clock when two enemy ships opened fire. Just before that time they were seen
approaching the coast from the south-east at a tremendous speed by the
coastguards at the signalling station, which is prominently situated on the
edge of the East Cliff, near the famous Abbey ruins. One of the men on duty was at the moment
hoisting the white ensign, and almost immediately afterwards the warships, now
within a mile and a half of Whitby, stopped and started to fire at the
signalling station. The coastguards say
that they were powerful battle cruisers of 25,000 tons each, and capable of
firing a tremendous weight of metal.
A COASTGUARD SHOT DEAD
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| The Coastguard lookout at after the attack |
The first shot
fell short, but the third killed one of the coastguards, Fredrick Randall,
a married man who lives in one of the Admiralty cottages. He had just stepped outside his house when a
shell burst close to one of the outbuildings and blew his head clean off. His wife was in the house at the time.
The firing was
continued at a very rapid rate and in the same direction, and the Abbey itself
had a fortunate escape from the complete destruction. Numerous pieces of shell were afterwards
found in the vicinity of the building, and there were large gaps in the stone
walls of the ancient ruins. It is not
yet clear, however, whether this damage was caused by vibration or direct
contact. The adjacent church of St. Mary
was not touched by shellfire, but the windows were broken by the confusion.
 |
| The cottage where Coastguard Randall died |
When the
warships had delivered their devastating message they suddenly turned to the
east and disappeared in the mist, as silently as they had come. The great majority of the shots had passed
over the East Cliff, and fell half a mile further on in the region of the
railway station, where nearly all of the material damage was done. Here, in the Fishburn Park district, houses
were wrecked right and left, and here it was that the second fatality occurred. Wiliam H. Tunmore, a railwayman employed on
the North-eastern Railway, was the victim.
He was driving a horse and cart at the Bagdale crossing near the railway
station when a small shell struck him and killed him on the spot, though the
horse was absolutely uninjured. He was
sixty-one years of age, and a married man, his home being in Grey Street. The only other case was that of an invalid
lady, Mrs Miller, of Springhill-terrace, who was hit in the side by a piece of
shell while she was lying in bed.
ELEVEN INCH SHELLS
Other persons came off
comparatively lightly with cuts and bruises. In some cases nearly the whole
front of the house was torn away, and in others the shell fell on the roof and
bored a gaping passage down to the kitchen floor. Furniture of all kinds was smashed, and
crockery became none existent. In one
case a projectile fell upon a bed which a young woman had occupied only a short
time before.
The
coastguards declare that the projectiles were 11 in. shells, and the huge,
jagged splinters that have been picked up by the score in various parts of the
town indicate that they must have been of very large dimensions. A good many fell in the fields at Springhill,
close to the police station, and here they made holes in the ground large
enough to have buried a horse in.
P.C.
Bainbridge had a lucky escape. He was
walking to the police station when a shell burst within a few yards of him. He was splashed with mud and earth, but was
otherwise untouched. If the cannonade
had come a few moments earlier, many children's lives would have been endangered.
There are two large fields in the midst
of that part of the town which bore the brunt of the firing, and the way to
these schools lay right in the path of the bursting shells.”
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| Whitby Sector Coastguards with the wreath they are laying later today. |
The sad loss of Coastguardsman
Randall was even more tragic given the fact that he had just returned to his
post, having been released from naval service as a consequence of the huge loss
of coastguards in the North Sea two months earlier in September
with the sinking of the three elderly cruisers Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy.
The following extract taken from the obituary column of the
Times of the 18th of December 1914, provides us with a little more poignant
detail about William Randall:
German Bombardment of Whitby:
The inquest
was opened at Whitby today on the bodies of Frederick Randall, Coastguard
Boatman, aged 30, and William Edward Tunmore, North-Eastern Railway employee,
aged 61, who were killed by shells during the bombardment of the Coastguard
Signal Station on the East Cliff by warships of the Imperial German Navy on the
16th December.
C.S.Davey,
Chief Officer of Coastguard, in his evidence described the bombardment, stating
that the whole fire was directed at the signal station, and common shells, not
shrapnel, were fired. The first shot hit
the cliff face, and this gave the Coastguards time to clear out of the signal
station, which was demolished by the next shot.
About 100 to 150 shells were fired. Randall emerged from the Coastguard
quarters and a shell blew his head off.
He left a wife and four children, the youngest being about six months
old.
