100 YEARS ago today on July 29, 1915, the 11,000-ton Canadian troopship Royal Edward, requisitioned for war service by the British government, was off the coast of Cornwall heading for Alexandria, Egypt. The ship had embarked 1,370 officers and men at Avonmouth, many of whom were reinforcements for the British Army 29th infantry destined for Gallipoli. Up to 100 Cornishmen were onboard.

The ship arrived in Alexandria on August 10 then sailed for Moudros on the island of Lemnos, which was a staging post for the Dardanelles.

People in Falmouth and Penryn were enjoying breakfast on Friday, August 13 1915, when 1,550 miles away off the Greek island of Kandeloussa, German U-boat captain Oberleutenant zur See, Heino von Heimburg was scanning the horizon from the periscope of UB 14.

Heimburg saw the British hospital ship Soudan escorted by destroyers and let the ship go on her way. Later he spotted the troopship Royal Edward. From a distance of one mile Heimburg gave the order to fire one torpedo at the troopship.

The torpedo hit the Royal Edward in the stern. Mortally wounded the troopship sank within six minutes. To make matters worse the troops had just completed a deck drill and many were below decks when the ship was hit.

In a matter of minutes 51 children in Falmouth and Penryn would lose their fathers and 15 women their husbands. Troops from other towns and villages the length and breadth of Cornwall would also perish in one of the worst maritime disasters of WW1.

There were approximately 100 Cornishmen in the 18th Labour Company ASC of which 60 perished.

Royal Edward managed to send off an SOS before she sank. The Soudan turned around immediately, arriving on scene over an hour later she rescued 440 survivors in an operation lasting six hours. Other ships rescued a further 220 men.

The Secretary of the Admiralty announcement on August 17 said: “The transport had 32 military officers and 1,350 troops, in addition to the ship’s crew of 220 officers and men … about 600 have been saved.”

When news of the sinking reached Cornwall grief stricken relatives waited anxiously for news of their loved ones. The family of Private Harry Woon at first received news that he was alive. Later they received notification he was dead after a mistake was made. Another trooper called Woon from Bugle was found alive.

Falmouth councillor Ambrose Jago, who was on board the lost transport in a letter later received by the mayor wrote: “The transport was struck at 9.15 am. I was in the officer’s mess having breakfast, when suddenly I saw a rush for the porthole, and heard ‘look, a torpedo.’ Then a crash, followed by an explosion. It knocked me clean off my feet.

“I got on deck. The liner’s stern was very near under water, and I jumped into the water, and managed to clear the ship. I could see one boat over, then another. After while I managed to find a raft and stayed with that for three hours before I was picked up. The ship was out of sight in three minutes.

“Many men were caught between the decks. They would insist on going below for their lifebelts, and lot were down below getting up stores. It was terrible sight, the cries round me were awful. I could see a lot trying to get through the portholes; they got jammed. I believe a number of Falmouth boys were lost.”

AT Fraser in the Border Regiment said: “I swam away from the ship and turned to see the funnels leaning towards me. When they reached the sea, all the soot was belching out, there was a loud whoosh and the ship sank. No explosion, no surge. So I was alone.

“The little waves were such that in the trough you saw nothing; on the crest you saw a few yards. The water was warm. I wondered if there were sharks around.”

Two of the Helston men aboard the ill fated Royal Edward, James Tremelling and Sidney Hender were saved. Their colleague Richard Polglase was lost.

An admiralty casualty list, published in The Times in September 1915, named 13 officers and 851 troops as missing believed drowned. Today all these brave men are remembered at the Helles Memorial on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey.

The UB 14 was a Type UB1 submarine built in Bremen. Only 28 metres long with a maximum speed of 6.5 knots it carried just two torpedoes. Crewed by 14 men it could operate in depths of 50 metres.

Heino von Heimburg was a WW1 U-boat hero awarded the Pour le Merite in 1917 for outstanding naval operations, having sunk 62,000 tons of enemy shipping. At the end of WW2 von Heimburg then a 55-year-old retired naval officer was abducted by Soviet forces and interned in a POW camp near Stalingrad where he died in late 1945.