Lives of the First World War

This community really come about because I kept on encountering HMS Flirt names while adding into my Portsmouth Kingston Cemetery Community. On the night of 26/27 October 1916 the German Navy raided the Dover Barrage with two and a half flotillas of torpedo boats and destroyers. Flirt under the command of Lieutenant R. P. Kellett responded to gunfire from the drifter line. She found the drifter Waveney II on fire and sent a boat to assist. When unidentified ships approached she issued a challenge and was immediately fired upon by the Germans. Flirt was lost; the only survivors were those dispatched to aid Waveney II. There appear to be almost 60 names on the Roll of Honour from that incident, and from what I can see there are 15 already on Lives that have been Identified. I am also going to add in any other men from Flirt that may have died while a member of the crew of which there appear to be at least 4, and I am adding in the names of those who were survivors too. HMS Flirt has not been forgotten and most of her crew are commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial . As an aside, I encountered the names of more former crew from HMS Flirt who were accidentally drowned going aboard ship by the capsizing of the whaler at Eastbourne.

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