Able Seaman (Acting Gunner)

Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

At the outbreak of war the British, together with Indian troops, resolved to protect oil supply in the region by occupying the area around Basra at Abadan. This evolved into a series of campaigns towards Baghdad against the Turkish forces as Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) was part of the Ottoman Empire. Meetings in late 1914 and into 1915 led the Viceroy and Indian government at Simla to reconsider the limited involvement of troops and they decided to order further advances with a view to securing the Shatt-al-Hai, a canal connecting the Tigris and Euphrates river and potentially capturing Baghdad. The British government disagreed and wished to conserve forces for the Western front. The Viceroy was given permission to act as it wished, but told in no uncertain terms that no reinforcements should be expected.

The initial success experienced by the British and Indian forces quickly disintegrated in the face of Ottoman opposition. The Siege of Kut-Al-Amara began on 7th December with the besieging of an 8,000 strong British-Indian garrison in the town of Kut, 100 miles south of Baghdad, by the Ottoman Army. These campaigns produced few tactical benefits, indeed the catastrophic defeat at Kut in 1916 was a major setback. Badhdad was eventually taken in March 1917.

The conditions in Mesopotamia were dreadful. The climate, sickness and disease produced large losses in addition to battle casualties. About as many men died of disease as were killed in action. The Mesopotamia front was part of a strategy hoping for success at lower cost than the Western Front but no decisive victory was achieved.

Detail :

DEAN, A.B. Percy William, 209195 (R.F.R./CH./B.3950). R.N. H.M> Gunboat "Moth". 26th Feb., 1917.

See also: Great War Forum.

Source reference: Official History of the Mesopotamia Campaign. Vol. III.
24th Feb. 1917: Capt. Nunn, the Senior Naval Officer, proposed to General Maude that his gunboat flotilla (Mantis, Tarantula, Moth, Butterfly, Gadfly and Snakefly) should move up the Tigris. This was agreed to and the gunboats proceeded upstream, encountering some floating mines which they easily avoided, and anchored off Kut about 9.30 pm.
25th Feb.: The naval flotilla (S.N.O.) Mantis, Moth, Gadfly and Butterfly, having passed through the Shumran Bridge about 8 am, had also arrived and were co-operating with their guns in the 38th Brigade attack.
26th Feb: Capt. Nunn at once proceeded upstream at full speed, Tarantula (S.N.O.), leading, then Mantis and Moth, with Gadfly and Butterfly following. Just after passing Bughaila, with white flags flying over it, at 2 pm, the gunboats began to overtake numbers of enemy stragglers on the left bank, and these, holding up their hands as a sign of surrender, were sent back to be taken by the troops.... as his ship approached the Nahr al Kalek bend, Capt. Nunn observed a large body of enemy on which he ordered all guns to fire. This was the enemy rearguard entrenched at the apex of the complete hairpin turn which the river makes here, the ships would be under gun, machine gun and rifle fire.... Capt. Nunn did not hesitate but steamed on... the Moth which was last in line suffered most severely. Finally handled by her commander Lt-Com. C.H.A. Cartwright, she was hit 8 times by shell which pierced one of her boilers and holed her below the water line, while 4 our of her 5 officers and half her remaining complement were killed or wounded. But she managed to keep going.
27th: The Moth and Firefly were sent to Basra for repairs.



There was a book published by New English Library in paperback in 1976 called " Armed with Stings" by A. Cecil Hampshire. This book deals with the history of the Insect Class Gunboats and it is worth trawling the secondhand bookstores for a copy. It states about 26th February 1917 :-

"The Moth , last to round the turn, was greeted by a storm of shellfire and suffered the most damage of all. Five 5.9 inch Turkish shells scored direct hits on the little gunboat. One went through the casing of the port boiler and the boiler itself; another smashed through the bunker on the port side into the stokehold; two struck glancing blows on the port side of the boiler casing, and the fifth slammed into the starboard side of the after storeroom just above the waterline. Lieutenant Commander Cartwright, her captain, who, Nunn afterwards reported, handled his ship magnificently, was himself a casualty. Two of his three officers were also badly wounded, while two ratings were killed and eighteen wounded. Like the rest of the flotilla the Moth's funnels and superstructure were sieved by bullets and gashed by shell splinters. Yet, despite the terrible hammering she had received which sent her limping down to Abadan for repairs, the gallant little Moth was back in action again within four and a half days. Like her sisters she had an astonishingly long life ahead of her" - Credit: Steve of Herne Bay.

Masonic :

Records of United Grand Lodge show his war service and "Killed 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