This is the third of a new series of articles about men and women connected to my family who served in – and survived – the First and Second World Wars.
Ernest George Iles (1898-1969)
Ernest was a cook’s mate in the battleship HMS Warspite when she was badly damaged in the Battle of Jutland – the largest naval confrontation of the Great War – in 1916.
Fourteen of the ship’s crew were killed and 16 injured when she was hit 15 times by heavy German shells in the battle on May 31 that year.
Reporting the Warspite’s day of drama, The Sphere said she fought for a time half-a-dozen of the enemy’s finest ships single-handed.
‘She presented an awe-inspiring and magnificent spectacle. Half-hidden in a haze of brown cordite smoke from her own guns and from the bursting enemy projectiles, she was literally surrounded by great spouts of whistling foam tossed high into the air by the impact of the large German shells.
‘This salvo of fire directed upon her by the enemy was not confined to one round, but was kept up for some time, and in this inferno she fought – hitting hard and true with every one of her mighty guns.
‘Those on board describe the scene as if a hundred thunderstorms had concentrated upon them. The air was filled with smoke, the flames of fire completely hid the ship, whilst the horizon was a ripple of flame from the belching enemy guns.
‘When she once more steamed out it was seen that she had received surprisingly little damage, but in return she had dealt the enemy several staggering blows, and had provided one of the greatest episodes in the titanic struggle.’
In limping back to Rosyth for urgent repairs, Warspite came under attack from a German U-boat – narrowly avoiding three torpedoes.
After being out of action for two months, Warspite was in trouble again soon afterwards when she collided with the battleship HMS Valiant after a night-shooting exercise – and had to return to Rosyth for more repair work.
Ernest joined the Navy on March 22, 1915 when he was 17. He served in Warspite from November 25 that year to January 17, 1918.
In December 1915, the ship was damaged when she collided with the battleship HMS Barham in an exercise. In June 1917, Warspite escaped major damage when she collided with a destroyer. In 1918, she had to undergo substantial repairs after a boiler room fire.
Ernest served as a cook in the cruiser HMS Gibraltar between March 1919 and January 1920. He left the Navy in 1923.
Born on March 18, 1898 in Cheriton Fitzpaine, he was the son of William (1862-1937) and Mary Iles (1864-1936).
He married Elizabeth Louisa Burridge (1892-1967) in 1919 in Crediton. They had a son, Sidney Ernest James Iles (1922-1992), and a daughter, Vera Iles.
Ernest died on July 22, 1969, aged 71. At the time he was living at 34 Butts Park, Crediton.
Family connection
Ernest was the brother of Emma Matilda Iles (1885-1979) who married William Henry Kingdom (1880-1967) in 1907 in the Crediton district. William was the son of Henry Kingdom (1854-1910) and Elizabeth Roberts (1851-1929). Elizabeth was the daughter of William Roberts (1828-1903), the eldest brother of my great-great grandfather John Roberts (1829-1919), who had a record 30 grandsons serving in the Great War.
Picture below
HMS Warspite, pictured by Lt D C Oulds, RN official photographer, in the Indian Ocean in 1942. Public Domain image, via Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMS_Warspite,_Indian_Ocean_1942.
