Richard McAndrews lost his life on the Armoured Cruiser HMS Natal when it tragically suffered an internal explosion in the Cromarty Firth in December 1915.
Richard had been born in West Hartlepool in June 1896 to parents Patrick from Newcastle, a shipyard worker, and his wife Mary Ann nee Heery who was born in West Hartlepool in 1875. He was the third of 7 children and the 1911 census, when they lived in Wood Street, tells us that Richard was a pupil at a Catholic school. His parents had married in 1892 in West Hartlepool.
Patrick's father, by 1915 a widower,was informed of his son's death at his address in Bridge St. Richard's body was not recovered and he is remembered on the Chatham War Memorial.
