Fate of the crew of HMS Cayton Wyke Introduction The Roman Catholic churchyard at the Kloosterweg in Brielle provides a place for a war grave of the Commonwealth. It concerns the grave of Seaman John Thomas Cook DSM of the Royal Naval Reserve (Patrol Service). As a result of the somewhat unclear data of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the grave is a bit difficult to locate. Also the widow and children of Seaman Cook for a long time were not aware where their husband and father had been buried. Their husband and father perished when his ship, HMS Cayton Wyke, had been sunk off the coast of Kent. ASW Trawler. HMS Cayton Wyke was launched on June 20th 1932 after the ship had been built by Cochrane & Sons Shipbuilders in Selsby, England. It had originally been built as a fishing trawler. Many trawlers were requisitioned by the Royal Navy during both the First and the Second World War, reconfigured into warships and used as minesweepers. The crews of these ships often were derived from the volunteer reserve of the Royal Navy and were familiar with this type of boats. Cayton Wyke also became requisitioned in August 1939 by the admiralty and deployed as an ASW ship (Anti Submarine Warfare). Therefore it was amongst others equipped with depth charges. The ship received a crew of 18 under the command of 48 year old skipper David Noble from Aberdeen.The other crewmembers were:
Arthur Brown Lieutenant: Frederick Coplin Second Hand: Chief Engineman: William Bruce William Hay Engineman: Robert Jewson Stokers: William Walters James Buchan A/B Seamen: Laurence Clark John Cook Russel Keable Charles Long Murdo McAuly John McKay William McLeod Ordinary Seaman: William Dickson Ordinary Signalman: Samuel Gilmour Harold Bond Steward: 48 Year old Noble was the oldest man onboard while Keable with 19 years was the youngest crewmember. U-16 and Dunkirk. On 24 October 1939 HMS Cayton Wyke was patrolling the English Channel when Seaman Cook in the position of ‘Anti Submarine Detector Operator’ discovered the presence of the German submarine U-16. The U-16 belonged to the 3.Unterseebootflotille in Kiel and had sailed six days before, for the third time, in order to lay mines along the coast at Dover. Cayton Wyke made contact with HMS Puffin which was also in the vicinity. Together they started to chase the U-16.
Close to the sandbank of Goodwin Sands near Kent the submarine was harassed with depth charges and got seriously damaged. The U-16 succeeded in escaping to the sandbank, but at 04:15 in the morning of October 25, she reported to headquarters: “Ship heavily damaged in front of Dover. Has to be scuttled.” For their participation in this feat Skipper Noble and Seaman Cook were awarded The Distinguished Service Cross and The Distinguished Service Medal respectively. In May 1940, HMS Cayton Wyke was commissioned during operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces from Dunkirk. On May 31 the ship succeeded in evacuating 605 soldiers from the French coast and delivering them safely to England. Going down. On Monday 8 July, 1940, HMS Cayton Wyke sailed off the coast of Essex during a patrol. When the heading was set towards Dover the ship passed the spot where it sank the U-16 about ten months earlier. Exactly at that moment of time Cayton Wyke was hit by a torpedo at its portside. It had been fired by a German submarine and caused an enormous explosion. The trawler capsized, sank immediately and ended up upside down on the bottom of Goodwin Sands. All eighteen crew perished through the explosion. The wreckages of the U-16 and Cayton Wyke are positioned only a few hundred yards apart from each other. Two days later the relatives of the crew received the message about the Missing in Action of their family members. All eighteen men were registered as “Missing, believed killed in action.” On the spot of the disaster no bodies were found. Aftermath. Ignorant about the exact fate of their husbands the widows of Skipper Noble and Seaman Cook received a few weeks later the awards for their husbands from King George VI. At that time still no bodies had been found. It is not known when exactly, but the bodies of William McLeod and William Dickson washed ashore at the beach at Noordwijk. They have been buried at the General Graveyard in that village. The body of John Cook washed ashore at Oostvoorne and was found by the inhabitants of that place. They buried him in a field near the village. After the liberation (in 1945) he has been reburied at the Roman Catholic Churchyard of Brielle at the Kloosterweg. The other fifteen crewmembers do not have a known grave. Their bodies have never been found or identified. The name of Ordinary Signalman Samuel Gilmore can be found, together with 18.614 names of other missing seamen, on the Naval Memorial in Chatham, Kent. The other men that perished at the sinking of the Cayton Wyke are mentioned on the monument for missing members of the Royal Naval Patrol Service in Lowestoft. Among them Russel Keable originating from Lowestoft.
Sources With special thanks to John Garth Cook, son of Seaman John Cook, for providing information about his father and HMS Cayton Wyke. - Commonwealth War Graves Commission - HMS Cayton Wyke - U-16
Afbeeldingen:
An ASW trawler, in this case HMS Bedfordshire (Source: U-boat.net)
Seaman John Cook (Source: John Garth Cook)
The grave of Cook in Brielle (Source: Pieter Schlebaum)
The grave of McLeod in Noordwijk (Source: Pieter Schlebaum)
Dickson has also been buried in Noordwijk (Source: Pieter Schlebaum)
Naval History Homepage and Site Search http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1940-07JUL.htm
Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, World War 2 Researched & compiled by Don Kindell, all rights reserved
1st - 31st JULY 1940 in date, ship/unit & name order Edited by Gordon Smith, NavalHistory.Net HMS Foylebank, auxiliary anti-aircraft ship sunk Portland 4 July 1940 (Eddie Palmer,) click to enlarge
on to August 1940
Notes: (1) Casualty information in order - Surname, First name, Initial(s), Rank and part of the Service other than RN (RNR, RNVR, RFR etc), Service Number (ratings only, also if Dominion or Indian Navies), (on the books of another ship/shore establishment, O/P – on passage), Fate (2) Click for abbreviations
(3) Link to Commonwealth War Graves Commission (4) More information may be found in the Name Lists
Monday, 8 July 1940
Cayton Wyke, anti-submarine trawler, ship loss BOND, Harold A, Seaman Steward, RNPS, LT/JX 197375, MPK BROWN, Arthur E, Py/Ty/Lieutenant, RNR, MPK BRUCE, William S, Engineman, RNR (PS), LT/X 416 EU, MPK BUCHAN, James A, Seaman, RNR (PS), LT/X 18709 A, MPK CLARK, Laurence L, Seaman, RNR (PS), LT/X 21610 A, MPK COOK, John T, Seaman, RNPS, LT/X 19756, MPK COPLIN, Frederick, 2nd Hand, RNR (PS), LT/X 19546 A, MPK DICKSON, William, Ordinary Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 197339, MPK GILMOUR, Samuel H, Ordinary Signalman, C/JX 175201, MPK HAY, William, Engineman, RNR (PS), LT/X 351 EU, MPK JEWSON, Robert, Stoker 2c, RNPS, LT/KX 103793, MPK KEABLE, Russell J, Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 179709, MPK LONG, Charles J, Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 164330, MPK MACAULEY, Murdo, Seaman, RNR (PS), LT/X 7770 C, MPK MACKAY, John, Seaman, RNR (PS), D/X 7766 C, MPK MACLEOD, William, Seaman, RNR (PS), LT/X 7717 C, MPK NOBLE, David F, Chief Skipper, RNR, MPK WALTERS, William, Stoker, RNPS, LT/KX 101709, MPK
Cook, John Thomas
Personalia Naam: Geboortedatum: Overlijdensdatum: Begraven op: Nationaliteit:
Cook, John Thomas Onbekend 8 juli 1940 Oorlogsgraf van het Gemenebest Rooms Katholieke Begraafplaats (lijst) Britse
Biografie Servicenumber LT/X19756A. John Thomas Cook groeide op in het graafschap Cork in Ierland. Hier leerde hij zijn vrouw kennen en na hun huwelijk vestigde het paar zich in Engeland. Hier werd hij zeiler op het jacht van de Hertog van Westminster. John Cook en zijn vrouw hadden drie kinderen. In 1939 verhuisde het gezin naar Engeland. Toen in 1939 de Tweede Wereldoorlog uitbrak kwam John terecht bij de Royal Navy Reserve. Hij volgde hier een trainingsprogramma en werd opgeleid tot ‘AntiSubmarine Detector Operator’. In oktober 1939 werd hij toegevoegd aan de bemanning van de HMS Cayton Wyke. Dit schip wist de eerste Duitse onderzeeër tot zinken te brengen op 24 oktober 1939. Op 8 juli 1940 werd de HMS Cayton Wyke getroffen door een torpedo en zonk. Alle achttien bemanningsleden kwamen hierbij om het leven. Thomas Cook spoelde aan bij Oostvoorne. Lees een uitgebreide biografie op Go2War2.nl.
Onderscheiding: Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) Verenigd Koninkrijk Vertaling: Medaille voor Verdienste (DSM) Aantal medailles in de database: 78 Aantal verleend wegens WoII: onbekend De Distinguished Service Medal werd op 14 oktober 1914 ingesteld en werd uitgereikt aan onderofficieren en manschappen van de Marine, van de Mariniers, of aan onderofficieren en manschappen van de luchtmacht en het leger, die dienst deden bij de marine, die tijdens operationele acties een toonbeeld waren van moed en vindingrijkheid, vaak onder vuur liggend, maar die echter niet in aanmerking kwamen voor het ontvangen van de Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. Voor vervolgacties kon een zilverkleurige gesp worden toegekend. De zilverkleurige onderscheiding is rond met een diameter van 36 mm. Op de voorkant van de onderscheiding kunnen de gekroonde hoofden zijn afgebeeld van: KING GEORGE VI:A, naar links kijkend met één van de volgende teksten: GEORGEIVS VI D: G: BR: OMN: REX ET INDIAE IMP: (voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog). GEORGEIVS VI DEI GRA: BRITT: OMN: REX FID: DEF: (voor Korea). KONINGIN ELIZABETH II, naar rechts kijkend met de volgende tekst: ELIZABETH II D: G: BR: OMN: REGINA R: D: (voor Korea en Vietnam). Op de achterkant staat de tekst FOR / DISTINGUISHED / SERVICE verdeeld over drie regels, dit alles omringd door een lauwerkrans, met daarboven de afbeelding van de Keizerlijke Kroon. De onderscheiding wordt uitgereikt met inscriptie van gegevens van de ontvanger, zoals het dienstnummer, rang, initialen, achternaam en onderdeel. Het bijbehorende lint heeft een breedte van 32 mm. en bestaat uit drie verticaal geplaatste, even brede banen met de kleuren: donkerblauw, wit en donkerblauw, met in de witte baan een smalle blauwe verticale streep. Totaal zijn er van deze onderscheiding 116 + 2 bars uitgereikt aan Canadezen, waarvan 114 + 2 bars tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog en 2 tijdens de Korea-oorlog. Distinguished Service Medal (DSM)
