Current Information:

Age-33

45, Bethel Avenue, Plaistow

On 6th November, 1915, HM Submarine E20 was lured into a trap that resulted in her being sunk and the death of 27 of her crew, including Leading Seaman Webb. As part of the naval force taking part in the Gallipoli campaign, she was supposed to meet up with the French submarine Turquoise off the coast of Marmara Island in the Sea of Marmara between the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. But a week earlier the Turqouise had been abandoned after it ran aground and the crew had left the boat without taking the confidential papers with them which gave details of the proposed rendezvous with HM Submarine E20. Consequently a German submarine, UB-14, was waiting for her and when HM Submarine E20 approached on the surface a single torpedo sank her. Some records, including those of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, give the date of this as 5th November but the majority of sources show it as happening on 6th November.