PULLEY Herbert

Name given as both Hubert and Herbert on various records.

1901 Census
Astwood, St Barnabas Parish, Worcester
George Pulley, head, Stockman on farm
Hannah Pulley, wife
Hubert Pulley, son, age 9, born Claines

1911 Census
HMS Amethyst (China and East Indies)
Herbert Pulley, age 19, single, born Whittington

Hubert/Herbert Pulley joined the Royal Navy in 1909 for 12 years. He had a tattoo of a shamrock, rose and thistle on his left arm, a tattoo for Elsie [?] on his right arm and a scar on right side of his head. At 16 he was 5 feet 2 inches tall, two years later he was 5 feet 4 inches tall, with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

Naval service:
HMS Amethyst 1909-11 a third-class protected cruiser of the Topaze class, with a complement of 296
HMS Excellent 1911-12
HMS Bulwark from 1912

HMS Bulwark was Battleship of the Formidable class (outclassed by the later Dreadnought Battleships), and spent the first few months of the war patrolling the English Channel, as the flagship of the Home Fleet. On 26 November 1914 at 7:50am she exploded whilst anchored at Sheerness, Kent, killing 736 men, with only 14 survivors, all badly injured and 2 of whom subsequently died.

It is the second biggest accidental explosion in UK history. It was possibly due to overheating of cordite, stored next to the boiler room, or due to practice of storing shells in cross-passageways, and subsequent knocking causing the shells to become live when being dropped or knocked.

Witnesses from another battleship, HMS Implacable, said “a huge pillar of black cloud belched upwards… From the depths of this writhing column flames appeared running down to sea level. The appearance of this dreadful phenomenon was followed by a thunderous roar. Then came a series of lesser detonations, and finally one vast explosion that shook the Implacable from mastheads to keel.”

Memorials for the disaster are at Sheerness and Gillingham.

Census records, naval records and HMS Bulwark researched and transcribed by Paul Hudson.

The following information was researched and transcribed by Sandra Taylor:
HMS Bulwark was commissioned in 1907 and became the flagship to the Home Fleet. At the outbreak of World War 1 she was used for Channel Patrol duty. On 26th November 1914 she was moored at Sheerness. Ammunition had recently been loaded onto the ship and stored in the corridors between the magazines. One or some of the shells is believed to have ignited and caused a chain reaction resulting in a massive explosion. When the smoke cleared, all trace of the ship was gone with the loss of over 700 men.

Further information from:
http://www.wessexwfa.org.uk/articles/hms-bulwark.htm

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/bulwark.htm

An eye witness account of the disaster can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal, Saturday 28th November 1914.

Hubert Pulley has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on Portsmouth Naval Memorial.