Current Information:

Age-23

HMS Laforey was a Royal Naval destroyer, launched in 1913. In March 1917 she joined the Dover patrol whose task it was to escort troop carriers, merchant ships, hospital ships etc across the English Channel between Dover and Calais or Folkestone and Boulogne. On 23 March, 1917, HMS Laforey and her sister ship HMS Laertes, had safely escorted a number of merchant ships to Boulogne and were returning to Folkestone when HMS Laforey hit a mine, broke in half and sank. Only 18 of the 77 crew aboard survived and what made this incident worse was that it had been a British mine, designed to counter the German submarine threat. One of those who lost their lives was Harry Archibald.