Francis G NEAL – Charfield

178447 Leading Seaman Francis George NEAL Royal Navy – HMS Monmouth

Drowned at sea in action on 1 November 1914, aged 37. One of all 738 sailors of the ships company died that day.

Probably known in the family as George, Francis George Neal was born at Tortworth on 17 December 1877: his parents were John and Ann Neal.

George joined the Royal Navy on 21 February 1894 and was posted to HMS Impregnable. He went on to serve in a variety of the Navy’s ships and reached the rank of Leading Seaman on 9 April 1905.

On 27 December 1909, he married Jane Ellen Merrett at St John the Evangelist Church, Charfield, whilst serving on HMS Cumberland. On 15 February 1911, he left the Navy to join the Coast Guard service, becoming a lighthouse keeper at Padstow, Cornwall. This carried the rank of ‘Leading Boatman, Coast Guard’. The 1911 Census show him living with Jane in the Coastguard Station at Padstow.

He was no doubt still a naval reservist and with war looking certain he was recalled to the service on 1 August 1914 and posted to HMS Monmouth, an armoured cruiser, completed in 1903, of which he served previously.

On 1 November 1914, Monmouth was part of a Royal Navy squadron, under the command of Sir Christopher Craddock, which encountered the superior force of the German East Asiatic Squadron, commanded by Vice Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee, of Coronel, Chile.

In what became known as The Battle of Coronel, the British lost two Armoured Cruisers; Cradock’s flagship HMS Good Hope and Monmouth.

Craddock and 1600 other officers and men were killed in action or went down with their ship. Leading Seaman George Neal was one of them. His body was never found and he is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

Six years later, at 2.45 pm on 28th February 1920, the formal dedication of the Charfield memorial took place.

A large crowd gathered. Amongst it were many relatives of the fallen, who were later to place floral tributes.

Over the Cross was draped a large Union Flag and the task of removing this was given to Frances Beatrice Neal, the only child of the village rendered fatherless by the War.