A Boer War, Great War H.M.S. Aboukir casualty and Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Group awarded to Chief Stoker A.E. Young, Royal Navy who would see Boer War service aboard H.M.S. Partridge being one of 150 men of this ship to be awarded a Queen’s South Africa Medal without clasp. Awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal whilst serving aboard H.M.S. Repulse on 24th October 1906, he would be pensioned ashore in 1913, subsequently transferring to the Royal Fleet Reserve on 13th June 1914. Recalled upon the outbreak of the Great War he would be killed in action aboard H.M.S. Aboukir on 22nd September 1914 when that ship was torpedoed by the German Submarine U-9. He is now remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial.
Group of 5: Queen’s South Africa Medal 1899-1902, no clasp; (A.E. YOUNG. ACT.CH.STO. H.M.S PARTRIDGE.) 1914-1915 Star; (163559 A.E. YOUNG. CH. STO. R.N.) British War Medal and Victory Medal; (163559 A.E. YOUNG. CH. STO. R.N.) Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, EVII, (163559 A.E. YOUNG. CH. STO. H.M.S, REPULSE.)
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
Archibald Edward Young was born in Bidborough, Kent on 1st March 1872 and joined the Royal Navy on 14th October 1891 for 12 years service, initially joining Pembroke as a Stoker 2nd Class, he would transfer to Wildfire on 20th October 1891 remaining aboard until on 28th February 1892 he would return ashore with Pembroke, being promoted to Stoker on 8th December 1892.
He would transfer to Immortalite on 19th May 1893, before serving in Blenheim from 26th May 1894. He would return ashore with Pembroke on 24th May 1895. He would transfer to the Basilisk, a Beagle Class Sloop on 10th December 1895 where he would remain until 3rd June 1899. He would return ashore with Pembroke on 4th June 1899, being promoted Leading Stoker 2nd Class on 4th October 1899, then Leading Stoker on 9th October 1900, Acting Chief Stoker on 16th January 1902.
Young would transfer to Partridge on 1st April 1902 and would serve in support of operations in South Africa during the Boer War, being 1 of 150 men of this ship to receive a Queen’s South Africa Medal without clasp, 11 others receiving various clasps. He would be promoted to Chief Stoker on 16th January 1903. He would then serve aboard Simoon from 1st December 1904 until 14th February 1905, Repulse from 16th June 1905 until 26th November 1906 during which time he would be awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 24th October 1906. He would then serve with Irresistible from 27th November 1906 until 14th December 1908, Blake from 3rd March 1909 until 2nd June 1909, Tyne from 3rd June 1909 until 14th March 1910. He would then see short assignments aboard St. George, Acteon and Dominion until he returned ashore on 10th June 1910. He would then be posted to Duncan on 9th August 1910 where he remained until 31st March 1913. Posted ashore he would be pensioned on 12th October 1913, before joining the Royal Fleet Reserve on 13th June 1914.
Upon the outbreak of the Great War he would be recalled and would serve aboard HMS Aboukir, being killed in action on 22nd September 1914 when that ship was sunk in the North Sea by the German Submarine U-9. He is now remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial
On the morning of 22 September, Aboukir and her sisters, Cressy and Hogue, were on patrol without any escorting destroyers as they had been forced to seek shelter from bad weather. The three sisters in line abreast, about 2,000 yards (1,800 m) apart, at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). They were not expecting submarine attack, but they had lookouts posted and had one gun manned on each side to attack any submarines sighted. The weather had moderated earlier that morning and Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt, commander of the Harwich Force, was en route to reinforce the cruisers with eight destroyers
SM U-9, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen, had been ordered to attack British transports at Ostend, but had been forced to dive and take shelter from the storm. On surfacing, she spotted the British ships and moved to attack. She fired one torpedo at 06:20 at Aboukir that struck her on the port side; Captain John Drummond thought he had struck a mine and ordered the other two ships to close to transfer his wounded men. Aboukir quickly began listing and capsized around 06:55 despite counterflooding compartments on the opposite side to right her. By the time that Drummond ordered "abandon ship" only one boat was available because the others had either been smashed or could not be lowered as no steam was available to power the winches for the boats
As Hogue approached her sinking sister, the ship's captain, Wilmot Nicholson, realized that it had been a submarine attack and signalled Cressy to look for a periscope, although his ship continued to close on Aboukir as her crew threw overboard anything that would float to aid the survivors in the water. Having stopped and lowered all her boats, Hogue was struck by two torpedoes around 06:55. The sudden weight loss of the two torpedoes caused U-9 to broach the surface and Hogue's gunners opened fire without effect before the submarine could submerge again. The cruiser capsized about ten minutes after being torpedoed as all of her watertight doors had been open, and she sank at 07:15.
Cressy attempted to ram the submarine, but did not hit anything and resumed her rescue efforts until she too was torpedoed at 07:20. She too took on a heavy list and then capsized, before sinking at 07:55. Several Dutch ships began rescuing survivors at 08:30 and were joined by British fishing trawlers before Tyrwhitt and his ships arrived at 10:45. The combined total from all three ships was 837 men rescued and 62 officers and 1,397 ratings lost. Of these, Aboukir lost a total of 527 men.
