HENRY WALTER VAUGHAN
The work provided by the shipbuilding industry in Portsmouth Dockyard has attracted workers from all over Britain for generations. Henry Vaughan's father James was one of them.
James Walter Vaughan was born at Pembroke Dock in 1865. After leaving school he trained as a cabinet maker and in the early 1880s made the move to Portsmouth to become a shipwright. Soon after arriving he met and married Caroline Ford (b. 1864 in Portsea) and by 1891 they had set up home at 15 Chichester Road, North End with their first two children Frederick (b. 1888) and Henry Walter (b. 1891).
By 1901 the family had moved to 43 Herbert Street, Mile End and another son, Albert had arrived. James and Caroline had also had two further children who had not survived infancy.
In 1903 Henry Walter was sent to the Higher Grade School at Victoria Road North and was there when it became the Secondary School a year later. By 1904 however Henry had been passed by Civil Service Commission and followed his father into the Dockyard where he began life as an Apprentice Shipwright. Ten years later he volunteered to go to the Dockyard at Gibraltar for a term but ended up staying there for three and a half years.
In September 1918 Henry Walter Vaughan set sail for home aboard the United States convoy protection vessel Tampa. On 26th September Tampa parted company with convoy HG-107 which she had escorted from Gibraltar to the Irish Sea and headed for the Bristol Channel. She was spotted by the German Submarine UB-91 which fired one torpedo at the Tampa. She exploded amidships and sank with the loss of 115 officers and men as well as 16 passengers, one of whom was Henry Walter Vaughan.
Further Information
The photograph reproduced is from a memorial booklet published by Southern Grammar School.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website lists Shipwright Henry Walter Vaughan, HM Dockyard, date of death, 26/09/1918, aged 28. Lost at sea and remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial (panel 31). Son of James and Caroline Vaughan, of 43, Herbert St., Landport, Portsmouth.
Henry Vaughan is remembered on the Southern Grammar School WW1 Memorial but not on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in 'The National Roll of the Great War'.