WWI:

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During the First World War the Merchant Service suffered heavy losses from German U-boat attacks. A policy of unrestricted warfare meant that merchant seafarers were also at risk of attack from enemy ships. In honour of the sacrifice made by merchant seafarers during the First World War, King George V granted the title "Merchant Navy" to the service. The Prince of Wales was made the Master of the Merchant Navy, a role handed down to the present Sovereign.

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NAVIES of WORLD WAR 1

LINK: www.naval-history.net/NAVAL1914-18.htm

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Historians complain Government's WW1 commemoration 'focuses on British defeats'

A row has broken out over the Government’s plans to mark the centenary of the First World War as ministers have been accused of doing “too little, too late” to commemorate the 1914-1918 conflict.

LINK: www.telegraph.co.uk/history/britain-at-war/10037507/Historians-complain-Governments-WW1-commemoration-focuses-on-British-defeats.html

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MM 13 year and nine months old WW1:

Sydney Cawsey was 13 year and nine months old when he worked as a cook on a merchant navy vessel during World War One.

The boat, which was mastered by his father John, would transport troops from Devon to Guernsey.

But, on March 1917, the young boy and his father were both killed when the boat was brutally shelled by a German submarine.

Read more: LINK: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330345/Boy-sailor-went-sea-father-just-13--BOTH-killed-German-U-boat.html#ixzz2UEK3jds6

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This is the youngest recorded casualty commemorated on Tower Hill WWI section:

JEFFRIES, Cook, REDAN SYDNEY, Fishing Vessel "Vanguard" (Lowestoft). Mercantile Marine. Presumed drowned 24th October 1917. Age 13. Son of Edith Maud Jeffries, of 26, Howard St., Lowestoft. Born at Lowestoft.

DS/BMcG.

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HOW THE FALLEN WILL BE REMEMBERED:

Commemorations marking the centenary of the First World War will last five years and cost £50million. They will include:

£5.3million to allow children and teachers from every secondary school to visit battlefields such as the Somme, Verdun and Fromelles.

National commemorations on August 4, 2014, to recall the first day of the conflict, including candlelit vigil at Westminster Abbey, Commonwealth Service at Glasgow Cathedral and an event at the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Mons, Belgium.

There will also be major events on July 1, 2016, to remember the first day of the Somme; and in 2018 to mark the centenary of Armistice Day.

£15million in grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support events across the country. Ideas include friendly football matches to mark the 1914 Christmas Day truce on the Western Front.

A £5million contribution to the £35million redevelopment of the Imperial War Museum’s First World War galleries.

A £1million grant to secure the future in Belfast of HMS Caroline, WW1’s last surviving warship.

Visit by David Cameron and Irish taoiseach Enda Kenny to the Belgian battlefields where 27,000 Irishmen in the British forces died.

LINK: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2338728/World-War-One-centenary-Candlelit-vigil-100-years-lamps-went-outbreak-WWI.html

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Barry at War becomes IWM WW1 Centenary Partner:

Barry at War have been successful in their application to join the Imperial War Museum`s First World War Partnership Scheme.

The scheme helps to bring together all partners with an interest in ensuring that the First World War Centenary ( commencing in Aug 2014) is suitably remembered.

LINK: barryatwar.info/2013/02/barry-at-war-becomes-iwm-ww1-centenary-partner/

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India's contribution to First World War:

India provided Britain with not just men and material, but money as well to fight the First World War. Apart from 1,440,437 men recruited, 1,381,050 men were sent for service overseas. India also bore the cost of these troops which were being largely used for Imperial rather than Indian purposes, and in 1917 she made an outright gift of £100 million towards the cost of the war.

www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/Chunk-HT-UI-PunjabSectionPage-PunjabBlogs/India-s-contribution-to-First-World-War/Article1-1077126.aspx

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1914-1918: King Honours Merchant Seamen Who Risk Blockade.

Royalty; World War One; honours. King George V honours merchant seamen for bringing food and supplies through blockade on merchant ships & allowing trade to go on.

Pathe News LINK: www.britishpathe.com/video/king-honours-merchant-seamen-who-risk-blockade/query/sailors

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TIME-LINE:

Merchant and Navy Ship events

1914 - 1918 (WWI)

LINK: www.mareud.com/Timelines/1914-1918.htm

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Captain John Bell was transporting coal from Newcastle to Plymouth in a small and completely unarmed cargo steamship when an enemy submarine fired a torpedo at his vessel in the English Channel in 1915.

But despite being at a severe disadvantage, he went on the offensive and rammed his vessel at the German U-boat’s periscope, the only part of the submarine which was visible, until he heard a loud crash from beneath them.

Minutes later oil from the stricken sub floated to the surface of the sea and the vessel was never seen again.

The astonishing feat happened just a few months into the First World War when German U-boats posed a real menace to Royal Navy shipping, with five cruisers being lost to them in the first 10 weeks.

After returning to port with the news that Captain Bell’s ship had become the first to sink a German U-boat, the skipper and his crew were each given a reward of £860, the equivalent of £75,000 today.

LINK: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345767/Medal-belonging-little-known-WW1-cargo-ship-skipper-single-handedly-sank-German-U-boat-ramming-surfaces-98-years.html#ixzz2WtG3oLE5

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Special German envoy on WWI centenary weighs in on debate about British commemoration of war's 100th anniversary. He asks that commemorative activities focus on remembrance rather than celebrating victory or attaching blame for 4-year conflict.

There are understood to be some official German concerns that the way Britain marks the centenary could cool relations between the two countries, against a backdrop of possible negotiations over the future of the EU and the UK’s membership of it.

LINK: www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10249760/Germany-intervenes-in-WW1-commemoration-debate.html

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First World War centenary:

One year to go to First World War centenary:

We would hope by then to hopefully ensure the MM are fully remembered.

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Today marks the 98th anniversary of the sinking of the British hospital ship Anglia, 17 November 1915. The ship was traveling from Calais to Dover when she hit a German mine. Despite rescue attempts, more than 100 were killed in the sinking.

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Minute's Silence:

Announcement began with the Last Post before a minute's silence in honour of those who died in World War I:

LINK