Frederick Hunneysett was drowned on 31st December 1917 when the troop ship he was on, the Osmanieh,hit a mine just outside the harbour at Alexandria, Egypt and sank within 7 minutes. 199 people died that day. The previous day another troop ship, the Aragon, had been torpedoed in exactly the same place and 610 people died.
The troop ships held a mixture of troops and medical staff; the fact that there were nurses on both ships and the scale of the loss meant that there were survivors stories in the newspapers.
Frederick’s body was recovered, many were not, and his grave is with those of his company, the 98th Light Railway Company, Royal Engineers, in Alexandria, Egypt in the Hadra War Memorial Cemetery.
They were to support the war in Palestine by manning narrow gauge trains (the size of model trains) that could quickly move supplies from the main supply dumps to refilling points close to the front line.
These were quick to build, relocate and repair and their widespread use towards the end of the war kept the guns firing and the soldiers eating. The British Army was rather late in adopting them but by the time of Frederick’s transfer their importance was recognised and men with railway experience were being moved from infantry units to the railway operating companies.
Frederick’s war
Frederick’s name was recorded on the list of Railwaymen who lost their lives in a special service in St Paul’s Cathedral. He is also recorded on Hellingly war memorial.
Frederick had indeed got railway experience. He had joined the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway on 31 December 1906 as a porter at Hailsham, transferring to Norwood Junction as a passenger guard where he was working until he joined the army in Croydon.
Frederick’s service record is one of the “lost records”, so what is known has been reconstructed from other records. He was awarded the British Medal and the Victory Medal, but not the 1914/15 star, this suggests that he didn’t join the army until at least 1916. His medal card also shows that he started in the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment and his medical record shows that he sprained his ankle in November 1916 at Corbie, a small town in the Somme, France. It also says he was a Lance Corporal. He then transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment, date unknown. Finally he was transferred to the Royal Engineers, 98th Light Railway Company as a sapper (private) and his company was sent by ship to Alexandria, Egypt. They were to support the war in Palestine by manning narrow gauge trains (the size of model trains) that could quickly move supplies from the main supply dumps to refilling points close to the front line. These were quick to build, relocate and repair and their widespread use towards the end of the war kept the guns firing and the soldiers eating. The British Army was rather late in adopting them but by the time of Frederick’s transfer their importance was recognised and men with railway experience were being moved from infantry units to the railway operating companies.
Frederick growing up
He was born on 14 Apr 1891 in Hellingly, Sussex to Cornelius and Sarah Jane Hunneysett, one of their 8 children. His mother was listed as his next of kin and his father received his war gratuity of £20 77s 10d
His father was born in Hellingly, and the family lived in Hellingly, then Hailsham, both addresses near the railway as Cornelius was a coal porter. Several of Frederick’s brothers also worked on the railway.
What Fred’s brothers did in the war and afterwards
Alfred Stephen (b1889) also joined the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, but later than his younger brother. He started work as a railway porter on 13 May 1907. He was still living at home for the 1911 census so presumably worked near enough to travel from home. He married Mary B SHEEHAN in 1912 in Havant, Hampshire. He resigned from the Railway on 24 Apr 1914. I haven’t found any war service yet, so the easiest way to track his whereabouts is from his childrens’ births.
Mary Ann was born in Havant in 1915. However, Dorcas Agnes was born (and shortly died) in Sheffield in 1917. A further daughter, Constance, was born in Sheffield in 1920. Then came another move and Alfred T was born (and shortly died) in the Grimsby area in 1926. Unfortunately Mary B also died in 1926, leaving Fred with two daughters to raise. He married again, three years later to a young widow, Eleanor HENNESSY (nee REEVES), who already had a son, Jack.
Fred & Eleanor went on to have a child together, Frank Cornelius, in 1930 again born in the Grimsby area. By 1939, Fred and his family have moved to Holten le Clay in Lincolnshire, 5 miles south of Grimsby. The family have settled in this area, along the coastline.
Bertie Oliver, (b1892) was living at home in 1911, He was 18 and working as a groom. Unsurprisingly, he also joined the London, Brighton and East Coast Railway. He joined as a porter (lad) on 20 June 1914 and resigned on 7 Apr 1914.
His war service record hasn’t been found but his medal card shows that he was in the Royal Field Artillery, firstly as a gunner and then he transferred into the Territorial Force as a driver. He received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, so joined at the earliest in 1916.
Bertie married Emma Olive HORNE in the last quarter of 1917, in the West Ham registration district in Essex, this includes Woodford where the couple were in 1939, Bertie working as a groundsman.They had two children, Joan and Norman.
Norman joined the Royal Navy and went down with his ship the HMS Orion in 1941, aged 17. He is commemorated on the Chatham War Memorial.
Frank (b1894) was still at home in 1911, working as a labourer. He joined up in 1915 at the age of 21. He joined the Royal Sussex Regiment as a private and was sent to France in July 1915. He survived the war earning the 1915 star as well as the British War and Victory medals. He returned to Hellingly, marrying local girl Louisa Kathleen PAGE in 1922. In 1939, they were in Upper Dicker, in the parish of Hellingly , Frank was working as a brick and haulage lorry driver. Louisa’s brother Ernest and his family lived next door.
Alex Cornelius (1899) joined the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway as a porter (Lad) on 20 June 1914. Five days after he resigned on 07 April 1916, he joined the Royal Marines. He enlisted at Brighton at just 17 and at 5ft 9ins. He served on the Arty and the Ramilles. RM Arty was the old Eastney Barracks, a shore training establishment.
He then transferred to HMS Ramillies on 01 May 1917. Ramilles was a brand new battleship which was launched in June 1916 and commissioned on 01 September 1917. It is likely that Alex sailed on her maiden voyage. However the ship saw no active service during the war.
Alex was transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve in 1920 and finally demobbed in June 1921. He also returned to Sussex, marrying Alice Caroline FARRANT in 1923. He also seems a to have rejoined the railway, as the couple lived at Junction, Polegate in 1939 and Alex was a railway shunter
Sources
Ancestry for
– UK, Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956
Findmypast for
– British Armed Forces, First World War Soldiers’ Medical Records
– War Memorials Register
– Soldiers Died In The Great War 1914-1919
Peter Singlehurst; The War Dead of the Commonwealth Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt Of Honour
http://www.londonwarmemorial.co.uk
www.lbscr.org
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/transport-and-supply-during-the-first-world-war
Fold3 for
– UK, WWI Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923
– British WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards
– UK, Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects Fold3
https://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/54600/alexandria-(hadra)-war-memorial-cemetery/
National Archives for
– RAIL 1057/2179