Roll of Honour

Lost on the battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable.

Having been born in West Hartlepool on March 21^st 1887, in Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee year, Victor Carter appears to have been given the middle name Jubilee. In 1901 he was living in Lancelot Street as a 14 year old with his parents, George and Annie, his aunt and uncle, all born in Hartlepool and his grandfather George Carter, a gardener who had been born in Bradford around 1838. 

He married Charlotte Emily Glennie (later shown in documentation as Lottie and also as Emily) on October 5th, 1907. In 1911, Victor, a dock labourer in the timber yard, his wife and children William Henry, 2, and Jessie Lawson Cater, 9 months, were living in Back Silver Street, West Hartlepool. Another child , Hannah, was born in 1913.

It appears that prior to joining the Royal Navy, Victor Carter had signed up for the Royal Artillery on 2^nd September, 1914, but was discharged on medical  grounds. The doctor’s writing on the discharge paperwork is difficult to decipher but is available under ‘army pensions’ on ancestry.com. It says, ‘ the patient is suffering from……………………." and "it gets worse during exercise". He was discharged on 29^th September, 1914. On the documents, his next of kin and children are listed.

We also learn he was 5 feet 5 and a half inches tall, was 133 lbs, had blue eyes and light brown hair and a 37-inch chest measurement.  He was Church of England. On his left arm he had tattoos of a woman’s head with crossed arms and the name Lottie. On his right arm was a Union Jack, a Japanese flag and a heart.

Victor joined HMS Indefatigable as a Stoker (RNR), and on May 31st, 1916, during the Battle of Jutland, he was one of the 1019 crewmen who died when the ship was shelled by the German battlecruiser Von der Tann causing a massive explosion. There were only two survivors.

Victor’s wife, Emily (Lottie) was living at 17, Charlotte Street, at this time.