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Gillingham Lodge of Benevolence No. 184

We remember

Roll of Honour, 1914–1919

Ten brethren of Lodge 184 died in or just after the First World War, seven of them naval men from the Chatham dockyard community. Three fell at Jutland on 31 May 1916.

  • George Munn

    Rank
    Shipwright 1st Class
    Ship or unit
    HMS Pathfinder, the first ship sunk by a submarine's locomotive torpedo, off St Abbs Head
    Died
    5 Sep 1914
    Age
    37
    Remembered at
    Chatham Naval Memorial

  • Thomas Robert Bennell

    Rank
    Private
    Ship or unit
    Wellington Regiment, NZ Expeditionary Force
    Died
    8 Aug 1915, Chunuk Bair, Gallipoli
    Age
    31
    Remembered at
    Chunuk Bair (NZ) Memorial

  • Jesse William Humphreys

    Rank
    Chief Engine Room Artificer
    Ship or unit
    HMS Cicala
    Died
    Feb 1916 (sources differ: 18, 20 or 23 Feb)
    Age
    43
    Remembered at
    Rochester (St Margaret's) Cemetery

  • James Forrest

    Rank
    Engineer Lieutenant
    Ship or unit
    HMS Acasta, Battle of Jutland
    Died
    31 May 1916
    Age
    42
    Remembered at
    Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery

  • Albert Middleton

    Rank
    Engine Room Artificer
    Ship or unit
    HMS Black Prince, Battle of Jutland
    Died
    31 May 1916
    Age
    39
    Remembered at
    Chatham Naval Memorial

  • Ernest Slack

    Rank
    Chief Artificer Engineer
    Ship or unit
    HMS Ardent, Battle of Jutland
    Died
    31 May / 1 Jun 1916
    Age
    43
    Remembered at
    Chatham Naval Memorial

  • John Corner

    Rank
    Chief Artificer Engineer
    Ship or unit
    HMS Ghurka, mined off Dungeness
    Died
    8 Feb 1917
    Age
    32
    Remembered at
    Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery

  • Thomas Gourley Walker

    Rank
    Chief Engine Room Artificer
    Ship or unit
    HMS Peregrine
    Died
    19 Nov 1918
    Age
    41
    Remembered at
    Chatham Naval Memorial

  • Walter Charles Wallington

    Rank
    Sergeant
    Ship or unit
    Royal Army Service Corps
    Died
    6 Dec 1918
    Age
    38
    Remembered at
    Tournai Communal Cemetery Allied Extension

  • Erle Britt Trotter MC DCM

    Rank
    Lieutenant
    Ship or unit
    Royal West Kent Regt, attached Welsh Regt
    Died
    28 May 1919, of wounds
    Age
    26
    Remembered at
    Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery

All details are from the Masonic Great War Project, which has a page on each man.

Their stories

Lieutenant Erle Trotter MC DCM

Initiated in November 1917, Erle Trotter won the DCM as a stretcher-bearer “personally tending the wounded under very heavy fire”, then the MC leading a raid despite two severe wounds. He also held the French Médaille Militaire.

HMS Pathfinder

The explosion that sank HMS Pathfinder was witnessed by the writer Aldous Huxley. Only 9 of the 268 men aboard survived.

HMS Ardent at Jutland

At night HMS Ardent “ran into the German battle-squadron” and fired two torpedoes before sinking. Only two of her crew survived.

Brother John Corner

John Corner was initiated in Hong Kong in 1902, in United Service Lodge No. 1341, and joined Lodge 184 in 1905. HMS Ghurka lost 74 men; only 5 survived.

Family connections

[Placeholder — a family tree tracing the descendants of these brethren will be added here once the Lodge has gathered and confirmed the details.]

Three of these men lie in Gillingham's Woodlands Cemetery, a short drive from the Franklin Rooms. They are remembered still.

Find out more about the battle in Jutland: WW1's Greatest Sea Battle (Channel 4).