44. Visit to HMS Ganges Burial Ground at Shotley

Mum and I visited the quiet churchyard of St Mary's in Shotley to visit the sailors graves there.

There is a section for the men and boys who died whilst stationed at HMS Ganges and also a special memorial to the early Submariners who died in World War 1

Godfrey Dykes has a fascinating website about the burials which showed that many of them died from illnesses such as pneumonia, TB, whooping cough and measles rather than being  killed in action. Many of the graves are for young boys of only 15, 16 and 17 years old.

We have a link with HMS Ganges - as my great grandfather Edward James Goodall carried out his naval training there in . The HMS Ganges Association has an interesting website on the history of the establishment.

This is the separate memorial to the 52 men who died  from the 8th & 9th submarine flotillas in the First World War. 

There are also the graves of 13 Germans who died when their ship laying mines was sunk near Orford Ness in 1914 - and then the HMS Amphion which had picked them up, hit one of the mines and sunk too! These became one of the first casualties if the war