SWINBOURNE Reginald

  • First Name(s):
    Reginald 
  • Surname:
    SWINBOURNE
  • Service Number:
    J35093
  • Rank:

    Leading Telegraphist

  • Conflict:
    WW1
  • Service:
    Navy
  • Naval Service:
    Royal Navy
  • Ship:
    HMS Bittern
  • Former Units:
    None
  • Date of Death:
    4th April 1918
  • Age At Death:
    20
  • Place of Death:
    Unknown
  • Place of Burial:
    Commemorated on Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Hampshire, England, Panel 29.
  • Place of Birth:
    Unknown
  • Home Town:
    Unknown
  • Casualty's Relatives:

    Son of Herbert E. and Susannah Dorothy Swinbourne, 1 Brookside, Great Hampton, Evesham, Worcestershire

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SWINBOURNE Reginald Is Named On These Memorials

Great Hampton Parochial School now in Hampton St Andrews C of E First School
Hampton St Andrew’s Church WW1 Memorial
Hampton War Memorial

Notes About The Memorial(s) Listed Above

Hampton St Andrew’s Church WW1 Memorial with the additional information: R.N.

Further Information About SWINBOURNE Reginald

Reginald Swinbourne was born in Evesham on 29th January 1898.  He enlisted as a Rating in the Navy in 1915 when he was 5 feet 4 inches tall with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.  Prior to enlisting he worked as an ironmongers assistant in Worcester.  Reginald served first on HMS Impregnable from 23rd February 1915, leaving the ship as a boy telegraphist on 8th July 1915 to join HMS Vernon.  Over the next three years he served on HMS Cochrane, Cyclops, Benbow, Vivid I, Chagford and Vivid II, rising to the rank of Leading Telegraphist by the time he joined HMS Bittern on 4th September 1917.

HMS Bittern was a Destroyer.  In the early hours of 4th April 1918 whilst sailing past Portland Bill in thick fog she collided with S.S. Kenilworth. Bittern sank rapidly with the loss of all hands on board.  At a later Court of Inquiry the master of S.S. Kenilworth was found guilty of negligence due to ignoring his instructions to stay close to the coast from Portland Bill to Start Point by sailing straight across showing no lights nor using a fog horn.

Evesham Journal and Four Shires Advertiser, 13th April 1918:
HAMPTON MAN DROWNED
Official news has been received that Reginald M. Swinbourne, son of Mr. and Mrs. H. Swinbourne, of Church-bank, Great Hampton, a leading telegraphist on one of his Majesty’s destroyers, has been drowned owing to a collision at sea.  He was home on leave for four days last month and returned to his ship on March 30.  His age was 19.  He was employed at Mr. R. Bennett’s, Port-street, Evesham, before leaving home.

Reginald Swinbourne was the son of Herbert Edward and Susannah Dorothy Swinbourne (nee Griffiths) who were married in 1886.

The clock on Hampton St Andrew’s Church is a war memorial to WW1 and is inscribed with the words: War Memorial 1914-18. The tenor bell is inscribed “also in memory of the sons of Hampton who died for the sacred cause of liberty and freedom”.

A photograph of Leading Telegraphist R.M. Swinbourne of Hampton can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 20th April 1918, available at Worcestershire Archives.

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

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Credits: Evesham Journal and parents details researched and transcribed by Peter Stewart. Inscriptions on the church clock and the church bells courtesy of John Smith.