Details from the Abingdon Roll of Honour

Name: NEALE, Thomas

Status: Died

Address: 2, Court 7 West St Helen's

Rank: Private

Service No: PO/10125

Battalion, Ship or Squadron: HMS Bulwark

Regiment: Royal Marine Light Infantry

Chronology: form August 1914, Mediterranean

Cause of Death: Lost in an explosion on HMS Bulwark

Place at death: Sheerness

Date of death: 26 November 1914

Extract from de Ruvigny’s ROLL OF HONOUR 1914-1918, Part 3, Page 204: 
NEALE< T., Private; lost on HMS Bulwark 26 Nov. 1914.

Buried or Commemorated: Buried in WOODLANDS CEMETERY, GILLINGHAM, Kent.

Reference: Naval Plot 21. Grave 1100.

Historical Notes:

Royal Navy battleship HMS Bulwark was commissioned at Devonport, Plymouth on 18th March 1907. She was intended to become the flagship for the Mediterranean Fleet but due to a long refit she became the flagship to the Home Fleet instead. In October 1907 she became grounded and received some damage requiring repairs. In August 1908, she joined the Channel Fleet and then Home Fleet, reduced to the Reserve in March 1910 but was recommissioned in 1912 to join the 5th Battle Squadron. From the outbreak of World War I she carried out Channel patrol duty and on the 26th November 1914 while loading ammunition at Sheerness, she was destroyed by a huge explosion, probably caused by black powder charges being mishandled, only 12 men survived.

There are entries in the Roll of Honour for other Abingdon men with this surname. To find them go to

http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Databases/Abingdon/index.html