PEOPLE IN PORTSMOUTH

 

Lives Lived and Lives Lost - Portsmouth and the Great War

FREDERICK CHARLES THICK
 
It is accepted that there are large numbers of military casualties of the Great War with a connection to Portsmouth but who's names do not appear on the Guildhall Square Cenotaph. One of them is Frederick Charles Thick.
 
It is probably the fact that Frederick Charles got married in 1915 and set up home in Portsmouth that he can be considered a man of Portsmouth at all as otherwise his entire life was spent either in Gosport where he was born in 1888 or in the Royal Navy. He can however be said to have lived much of his life in the vicinity of Portsmouth unlike his parents, Eli and Mary Thick, who were born in Christchurch and London respectively but who married at Droxford in 1887 and probably moved to Gosport around the same time.
 
Frederick Charles was their first child, being born in 1888. He was followed by two siblings Harry and Jane. He probably joined the Royal Navy at an early age but details of his career are unknown. What is certain however is that in 1915 he married Clara Bailey at Tendring in Essex. It is assumed that they moved to Portsmouth almost straightaway where they lived at 8 Wilton Terrace, Southsea.
 
Frederick Charles could not have spent much time at home as he was serving on HMS Britannia. He lost his life when she became the very last Royal Navy ship to be sunk in the Great War. She was patrolling the western approaches to Gibraltar when she was torpedoed by UB-50 and sank after two and half hours with a ten degree list. 39 officers and 673 men were saved but Frederick Charles Thick was not among them. He was one of only 50 who died.
 
Further Information
 
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website lists Officer's Steward Frederick Charles Thick, (L/49), Royal Navy, HMS Britannia, date of death, 09/11/1918, remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial (Panel 30). Son of Mr. and Mrs. Eli Thick, of Gosport, Hants; husband of Clara Annie Thick, of 8, Wilton Terrace, Southsea, Portsmouth.
 
Frederick Thick is remembered on the St Jude's Church WW1 Memorial but not on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War'