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Roll of Honour

Hartlepool seafarers lost at sea

Spindloe, Walter, Arthur

Stoker
57, Clarendon Road, West Hartlepool
West Hartlepool
11/1890
26/11/1914

Walter Spindloe was born in West Hartlepool on the 11th March 1890. He was the son of John and Elizabeth (nee Evans) Spindloe. John was born in Hatford, Berkshire and Elizabeth in Wolverhampton , Staffordshire. John and Elizabeth married on 4th March 1879 at St. Matthew’s Church, New Wortley, West Yorkshire .

They must have moved to West Hartlepool not long after their marriage as their first child Francis Evans Spindloe was born in Hartlepool and his birth registered in the June qtr of 1880. In the 1881 Census they are living at 13 Mozart Street , Stranton and John Spindloe is a Railway Guard. By 1891 they have moved to 9 Bentick Street, West Hartlepool and there are five more children including Walter Arthur Spindloe. 1901 shows they have moved again to 14 Derwent Street, West Hartlepool and there are two more children, Frederick and Dorothy. In 1911 they are at 57 Clarendon Road , the address given when Walter was killed on the Bulwark. Only John, Elizabeth and children Frederick and Dorothy are living at Clarendon Road in 1911.

 

Walter Arthur Spindloe joined the Royal Navy on the 30th September 1910 for a period of 12 years. He was described as being 5’4”, with a 36” chest, Light Brown hair, Grey eyes and a fair complexion. He had a scar over his left eye. He had three periods of service on Victory II and also served on Renown, Roxburgh, Hampshire, Europa and finally joining Bulwark on the 1st August 1914. The 1911 Census shows Arthur in Portsmouth on the Roxburgh. He was a Stoker 2nd class in the Engine Room Department.

Walter became a Stoker 1st Class and he died on 21st November 1914 when HMS Bulwark exploded in Sheerness Harbour at 7.53 am and sank almost instantly, (Newspaper reports say that it was thought to have been a magazine explosion) with a loss of between 700 and 800 lives. There were between 10-14 survivors. There was a Memorial Service for those who went down with the Bulwark at Portsea Parish Church on the 4th December 1914. Walter is commemorated at the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.