Rank: Able Seaman Regiment: Royal Navy HMS Monmouth Died: 1 November 1914 Age: 37 Parish: East Budleigh Other Memorial: Exmouth War Memorial, Plymouth Naval Memorial [Google] PDF Download: HART Herman George
The son of John Pyle Hart and Elizabeth Hart, of East Budleigh, Herman was born in the village in 1877.
As an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy, he served aboard HMS Monmouth early in the war.
Monmouth, launched in 1903, was by 1914 in the navy’s reserve Third Fleet, but when war broke out she was sent as part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron in the Atlantic to protect Allied shipping.
They came across the more powerful German East Asia Squadron off the coast of Chile, and in the ensuing Battle of Coronel, HMS Monmouth was lost, along with her entire crew of around 700 men.
Able Seaman 174940 Hart is remembered with honour on the Exmouth War Memorial, and on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.
Pictured above is HMS Monmouth © IWM (Q 74951)
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