During family history research into my maternal (Sams) and paternal (Turpin) ancestry, I made an interesting but ultimately tragic discovery. I thought I'd share it with you.
At the beginning of 1860, both the Sams and Turpin families celebrated the birth of baby girls. Both were given the same names, popular at the time.
Elizabeth Ann Sams was born in Southminster, Essex - sister of my Great Grandfather Ernest Sams. Just down the road in Steeple, Elizabeth Ann Turpin was born - sister of my Great Grandfather William Turpin.
Elizabeth Sams grew up and married into the Skeats family, farmers in Tillingham. They had several children, the oldest boy being Arthur William Skeats.
Elizabeth Turpin grew up and married into the Monk family, farmers in Althorne and Creeksea. Elizabeth's brother in law - George - married and moved to Canewdon where he had a son, Oswald Frank Monk.
As war loomed, Arthur Skeats and Oswald Monk both gave up farming and joined the Royal Navy. They both rose to the rank of Stoker 1st Class. In the early days of World War One, Arthur was posted to HMS Cressy, Oswald to HMS Hogue. On 22nd September 1914, they both died. Patrolling the Dutch coast with HMS Aboukir, their vessels were attacked by a flotilla of German U boats. Aboukir was sunk first. Thinking it had struck a mine, Cressy and Hogue turned to assist, putting out boats to pick up survivors. Too late, they saw the tell tale sign of periscopes. Hogue was struck next, sinking in a matter of minutes. Finally, three torpedoes were fired at Cressy. One missed but others struck the starboard side and the boiler room. Cressy sank after about twenty minutes, shortly before 8am. The incident was one of the Royal Navy's worst losses. Although about 800 survived, 60 officers and 1400 crew were killed that morning.
