It is not commonly known that the first casualties in the Royal Canadian Navy were four midshipmen, doing their "big ship time" in the armoured cruiser HMS Good Hope. They perished along with the rest of their shipmates at the Battle of Coronel, 1 November 1914 (from Crowsnest, November 1964) They were: (3)Midshipman Malcolm Cann RCN (19), of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (2)Midshipman John V. W. Hatheway RCN (19), of Granville, Nova Scotia (1) Midshipman William Archibald Palmer RCN (20), of Ottawa, Ontario (4)Midshipman Arthur Wiltshire Silver RCN (20), of Halifax, Nova Scotia Marc Milner has recently pointed out (in Canada's Navy: the First Century, page 43) that Rear-Admiral Craddock specifically requested that Silver and Palmer join Good Hope and that the other two were drawn by lot. Officers Aboard HMS Good Hope, Falkland Islands, 18 October 1914 Back row, Left - Right Surgeon de Verteuil, MD (see below); Ass. PayM. S. W. Watson; Lt. J. Fisher; Cdr. A. T. Darley; Capt. Partridge, RMLI; PayM. J. E. Tizard; Cdr.(N) W. Scott; LCdr. G. B. Gaskell; S-Lt. J. A. Cotter. Middle row, L-R PayM. J. Egremont; (behind) Lt. G. E. E. Gray and (unknown); Lt. H. S. Walker, RMLI; Lt.(T) L. A. Montgomery; Surgeon F. C. Searle; Flt. PayM. A. H. Veitch; Lt. A. G. Smith. Front row, L-R Mid. G. Trounson, RNR; Mid. M. Dowding, RNR; Mid. A. W. Silver, RCN; Mid. M. Cann, RCN; Lt. E. J. French, RNR; Clerk E. C. Webber; Mid. W. A. Palmer, RCN; Mid. K. D. Cuthbert, RNR. HMS Good Hope, Halifax, 15 August 1914 The big smudge on the forcastle is damage to the original photo, not the ship. This was the occasion on which seven Canadian midshipmen went aboard Good Hope's consort, HMS Suffolk. When the admiral transferred his flag to the bigger ship, he took four of the Canadian midshipmen with him. They were still in Good Hope when she met her end off Coronel on 1 November 1914. http://www.gwpda.org/naval/j0500001.htm
'HMS Good Hope''' ................ was a 14,100-ton Drake-class armoured cruiser of the Royal Navy - she was originally planned to be named "Africa'', but was renamed before she was launched. Laid down on 11 September 1899 and launched on 21 February 1901, with her heaviest gun being of 9.2 inch (234mm) calibre, she became the flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron, Atlantic Fleet, in 1906, and in 1908 became the flagship of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron. She went into the Reserve Fleet in 1913, but following the mobilisation just before the outbreak of the First World War, she joined the 6th Cruiser Squadron. The 6th Cruiser Squadron was initially allocated to the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow to replace the 4th Cruiser Squadron (of Monmouth class cruisers) which had previously been sent to Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Craddock's North America and West Indies command to help protect British interests during the Mexican Revolution. However, the Admiralty almost immediately (mistakenly) concluded that it was likely that German liners in New York and other ports on the United States Atlantic seaboard could convert themselves to armed merchant cruisers by installing guns which the Admiralty believed they carried in their holds. They therefore diverted Good Hope to further reinforce Craddock's force, and she left Portsmouth on 2 August 1914 under the command of Captain Philip Francklin. Craddock transferred his flag to her on her arrival at Halifax, Nova Scotia because, although 90% of her crew were reservists who had been given little opportunity to train together in the ship, she was faster than his current flagship HMS Suffolk. For the next few weeks she was employed protecting British merchant shipping as far south as Pernambuco and later the Falkland Islands. She then embarked on the search for the German East Asiatic Squadron, leaving Stanley on 22 October for the west coast of South America via Cape Horn. She was sunk ...... along with HMS Monmouth - by the German armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau under Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee ........ with the loss of her entire complement of 900 hands in the Battle of Coronel on 1 November 1914 off the Chilean coast Here's some photos of her crew !! http://www.coronel.org.uk/crew_g.php
