Lives of the First World War

HMS Iron Duke ship's badge

Those sailors who fondly imagined that they would storm ashore in dark blue, wearing Naval Landing Rig, were sadly disillusioned. Towards the end of their training, they spent a day at the Royal Marine Barracks at Chatham. 'We next were fitted out with khaki,' Leading Seaman William Childs remembered. 'This was very amusing for the sailors ... invariably had yards of puttee trailing behind them.' there was frantic sewing over the next evenings. The khaki uniform had no badges of rank. No self-respecting rating would walk around without his proper grade being visible. It was not until the end of March, when the sailors had technically finished their training that they learned their objective. Source: Zeebrugge and Ostend Raids Author Deborah Lake Publisher Pen and Sword, 2008

Under the terms of clause 13 of the VC statutes, in cases where a body of men was deemed to have been so gallant, the best way to select VCs was by a ballot, enabling the men themselves to decide. Following on from a ballot for the Royal Marine participants, a ballot was held for the Royal Navy participants. These latter were the ships crews of Vindictive, Iris II, Daffodil, as well as the men of the Naval Storming Party. Captain Carpenter of the Vindictive, and AB McKenzie who belonged to B Company of the seaman storming party, were awarded the VC as a result of the ballot. Unfortunately, the six page list does not break out 1. the parties by company and embarked ship, nor 2. who was crew on HMS Vindictive. Storming Party men do have HMS Hindustan recorded as their depot for Mar-Apr 1918 on their service records. In addition to what was on the original list, a "prior posting" column has been added, as well as the company if known. It can be seen that the men tend to be grouped by ship