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Age-20

2, Bastion Road, Plumstead

Among the ships that made up the Harwich Force during the war were three new R Class destroyers, HMS Surprise, HMS Torrent and HMS Tornado. Among their duties was convoy protection for merchant ships crossing the North Sea and on 23rd December, 1917, they were waiting for their convoy, off the coast of Holland in an area close to the Maas light buoy. Unbeknown to them the Germans had only just recently, heavily mined this area and it was to be their downfall when, early that morning, they ran into this minefield. HMS Torrent was hit first and started to sink and when HMS Surprise went to her rescue she suffered the same fate. HMS Tornado tried in vain to get free from the minefield but in so doing detonated two mines and immediately sank with only one survivor. A fourth destroyer, HMS Radiant managed to escape the carnage to return home safely after having picked up the survivors from the three sunken vessels. In all a total of 252 officers and men lost their lives. One of these was Louis Pravey of HMS Tornado.