Family :

Education & Career :

BMJ Obituary Exhibitioner of Pembroke College Cambridge M.B. B.C. CANTAB. F.R.C.S. ENG St Thomas Hospital London. Surgeon R.N.(Temp) Who was Killed in the explosion on HMS Vanguard July 9 1917 Age 31 Brother of Second Lieutenant Harold Leslie Rayner who was killed in action on July 1st (sic) last year. When the war broke out he was house surgeon to the Isolation Block of his hospital and at once offered his services to the Admiralty. He served in Gallipolli with The Royal Navy Division Engineers after the trying experiences of which he was invalided for five months. In the autumn of last year (1916) he was appointed Surgeon to The Vanguard. Born in Hampstead in 1886. he was educated at Heddon Court and the South Eastern College, Ramsgate, were he was conspicuous in sports, winning several challenge cups and first-class prizes. in 1905 he entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, and took a first class in the Natural Science Tripos in 1908. he received his medical education at Cambridge and St Thomas's Hospital qualifying as M.R.C.S.Eng and L.R.C.P.Lond. in 1912. The same year he recieved the degree of M.B. and B.C.Cantab. He acted as House Surgeon and casualty officer as St Thomas's while working for his F.R.C.S. which he passed in 1913.:)

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

During the war there were a number of Naval Accidents which we have isolated because of their shocking caualties and the corresponding impact on members of the craft. There were a number of vessels destroyed in port by explosions which we would today categorise as 'Health & Safety' failures.

HMS Vanguard was a St Vincent class battleship, an enhancement of the Dreadnought design built by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness. She was designed and built during the Anglo-German naval race and spent her life in the British Home Fleet. At the outbreak of World War I, HMS Vanguard joined the First Battle Squadron at Scapa Flow, and fought in the Battle of Jutland as part of the Fourth Battle Squadron. She was a part of the action from beginning to end, but did not suffer any damage or casualties. Just before midnight on Monday, 9 July 1917 at Scapa Flow, Vanguard suffered an explosion, probably caused by an unnoticed stokehold fire heating cordite stored against an adjacent bulkhead in one of the two magazines which served the amidships gun turrets P and Q.

She sank almost instantly, killing an estimated 843 men; there were only two survivors. The site is now designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act. In terms of loss of life, the destruction of the Vanguard remains the most catastrophic accidental explosion in the history of the UK, and one of the worst accidental losses of the Royal Navy. 15 Freemasons died on HMS Vanguard. They were; STONEBRIDGE Herbert Artificer PEIRSON Edward Leslie Assistant Paymaster BROWNING Percy Garnet Chief Petty Officer SEAL William Henry. Chief Petty Officer SMITH Richard Maurice Chief Petty Officer THORPE Robert William Chief Petty Officer HARVEY William Chief Stoker TIDMARSH Alfred Henry Chief Stoker GREENAWAY Walter Joseph Henry Cook TAYLOR Victor William Engine Room Artificer STEVENS Philip Bennett Fleet Paymaster BARTON Enoch Seaman SMITH Ernest Sick Berth Steward HOLLAND Andrew Steward RAYNER Edward Surgeon

Masonic :

Recorded as Edward in the 1921 roll but mistakenly as Ernest on the 1933 Scroll. Upon initiation, he was employed as Medical Staff at St. Thomas's Hospital. The last entry is "Killed on HMS Vanguard 1917."

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley