Chief Gunner
Alfred Edward STURT
Navy
Died: 31st May 1916 - Age: 47

Commemorated:

1. Memorial:Portsmouth Naval Memorial Hampshire
2. Book:The (1921) Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-1918Pg.136
    

Awards & Titles:

 

Service Life:

Campaigns:

Unit / Ship / Est.: HMS Queen Mary 

Steaming in advance of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe's Grand Fleet, Beatty's battlecruisers, supported by the battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron, collided with Vice Admiral Franz Hipper's battlecruisers in the opening phases of the Battle of Jutland. Engaging at 3:48 PM on May 31, the German fire proved accurate from the outset. At 3:50 PM, Queen Mary opened fire on SMS Seydlitz with its forward turrets.As Beatty closed the range, Queen Mary scored two hits on its opponent and disabled one of Seydlitz's aft turrets. Around 4:15, HMS Lion came under intense fire from Hipper's ships. The smoke from this obscured HMS Princess Royal forcing SMS Derfflinger to shift its fire to Queen Mary. As this new enemy engaged, the British ship continued to trade hits with Seydlitz. At 4:26 PM, a shell from Derfflinger struck Queen Mary detonating one or both of its forward magazines. The resulting explosion broke the battlecruiser in half near its foremast. A second shell from Derfflinger may have hit further aft. As the after part of the ship began to roll, it was rocked by a large explosion before sinking. Of Queen Mary's crew, 1,266 were lost while only twenty were rescued. Though Jutland resulted in a strategic victory for the British, it saw two battlecruisers, HMS Indefatigable and Queen Mary, lost with nearly all hands. An investigation into the losses led to changes in ammunition handling aboard British ships as the report showed that cordite handling practices may have contributed to the loss of the two battlecruisers

Action : Jutland 

The Battle of Jutland was the largest naval battle of World War I, and the only full-scale clash of battleships in that war. It is considered to be the largest conventional naval battle in history. It was fought on 31 May - 1 June 1916, in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. The combatants were the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, commanded by Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, and the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. The German fleet's intention was to lure out, trap and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, as the German numbers were insufficient to engage the entire British fleet at one time. This formed part of a larger strategy to break the British blockade of the North Sea and to allow German mercantile shipping to operate. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy pursued a strategy to engage and destroy the High Seas Fleet, or keep the German force bottled up and away from Britain's own shipping lanes. Considered a tactical victory for the Germans but a resounding strategic victory for the British.

Detail :

Gunner R.N.

Masonic :

TypeLodge Name and No.Province/District :
Mother : Phoenix No. 1860 E.C.South Africa (Western)
Joined : United Service No. 1428 E.C. Hampshire & IOW
Joined : Lodge of Emulation No. 1100 E.C. Bombay

Initiated
Passed
Raised
10th October 1893
14th November 1893
14th December 1893
 

Records of United Service Lodge at the United Grand Lodge of England show that Albert Edward Sturt joined From Lodge of Emulation No. 1100, Bombay on the 28th February 1911 and was "Lost in H.M.S. Queen Mary May 1916". He had joined Lodge of Emulation on 18th October 1902, but resigned 21st May 1903. Traced back to his Mother Lodge, Phoenix Lodge 1860, at Simonstown, Cape Colony S.A. where he was initiated in 1893.

Source :

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Last Updated: 2017-07-28 06:06:18