The Derbyshire Stokers
A project to research and share the stories of the men from Derbyshire's
mining villages who served as ship's stokers during the First World War
Thomas James Tumbs
Born 1878- died 1917.
Died in the torpedoing of HMS Drake.
Thomas James Tumbs was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire 1 on the 8th November 1878, the son of Charles and Mary Tumbs. His father’s occupation in the 1891 census is given as ‘night soil man’. The family had moved to Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester) by 1881 and later moved to Gorton. By 1901 Thomas was working as a carter in a brickworks. He married in 1905. By 1911 his occupation is given as electricity labourer in the locomotive engineering industry. He also worked for Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester 2. His pre-enlistment occupation on his naval record is given as stoker.
Thomas joined the Royal Navy in November 1915 aged 37 3. He trained on HMS Vivid II, the Stokers and Engine Room Artificers School at Devonport, and was posted to HMS Drake as Stoker 2nd class on the 21st February 1916. Drake was an armoured cruiser launched in 1901. She had two 9.2inch guns and 16 6inch guns. Four steam engines powered by 43 boilers gave her a top speed of 24 knots.
When Thomas joined HMS Drake she was engaged in escort duties and took part in the hunt for the German commerce raider SMS Möwe. Thomas died when Drake was torpedoed by the German submarine U-79, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Rohrbeck, on 2 October 1917 after her Convoy HH24 had dispersed for its several destinations.
The ship was about five miles (8.0 km) off Rathlin Island at the tip of Northern Ireland when she was hit. The torpedo struck the No. 2 Boiler Room and caused two of her engine rooms and the boiler room to flood, killing 18 crewmen. These gave her a list and knocked out her steam-powered steering. Her captain decided to steam for Church Bay on Rathlin Island and accidentally collided with the merchant ship SS Mendip Range before she dropped anchor. The collision did not damage Drake much, but Mendip Range was forced to beach herself lest she sink. Drake's crew was taken off before she capsized later that afternoon 4.
The 18 crewmen who died were all stokers or engine room artificers. Most of the bodies were not recovered from the wreck. Thomas Tumbs is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and also on the War Memorial for staff of Belle Vue Zoo in Gorton cemetery. A buoy marks the site of the wreck which is a protected monument 5.
1 The 1901 census gives his place of birth as The Brushes, an area to the north of Chesterfield between Sheepsbridge and Old Whittington.
3 Conscription was introduced for single men in January 1916 and extended to married men a few months later.
4 Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Drake_(1901)