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Age-31

8 Grays Inn Square

By the time war broke out in 1914, the Duncan-class battleship HMS Russell was out of date having been superseded by the new Dreadnought battleships. Nevertheless there was still a part to be played by these older vessels and in November, 1915, as part of the 3rd Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet, she moved to the eastern Mediterranean to reinforce the naval presence in the Dardanelles during the Gallipoli campaign. By early 1916 this campaign had come to an end and the Gallipoli peninsular had been evacuated but HMS Russell remained in these waters.

On 27th April, 1916 she was sailing off Malta when she hit 2 mines that had been laid by the German submarine U-73. HMS Russell developed a list and began to slowly sink and whilst this allowed most of the crew to escape, over 100 of the ship’s company lost their lives, including Lancelot Freyberg.