28th August 2025 • The HERALD • Page 27 v INDEPENDENT, LOCAL AND PROUD v Waterside Carpet Cleaning PROFESSIONAL CARPET CLEANING! Using Prochem Equipment and Materials • SPOT/STAIN TREATMENT • Fully Insured 023 8066 0878 or 07770 337917 www.watersidecarpetcleaning.com SP DECORATING Painting & Decorating Specialist Simon Perks Tel: 07889 091420 Email: simonperks@rocketmail.com • Interior & Exteriors • Wallpaper Hanging • Prompt & Reliable Service • Free Quotations & Expert Advice • Fully Insured PVCu FASCIAS & GUTTERING CLEANING SERVICE Gutters checked for leaks and repaired Also new installations Driveway, Patio and Decking Cleaning and Restoration Service Very reliable and fully insured Good Rates and Professional Service Special Rates for OAP’s Call us now for a free quote Holbury 07884 112416 S H PLASTERING Contact Sam on 07896 830160 No Job is Too Small! Local • Reliable Service Frederick and William Spedding by Robin Somes, Fawley and Blackfield Memories Last time, we learned about the death of William Waterman Jr, aboard HMS Hampshire in 1916. ere’s nothing to suggest that William knew the Spedding brothers, William and Frederick; then again, there’s nothing to suggest he didn’t, since they were around the same age, and from neighbouring villages. William and Frederick Spedding were born at Lepe in 1895 and 1896 respectively; their father – also William – had married Lilly Albena Tillyer in 1892, and worked as a mariner on small inshore trading vessels. e 1881 census records him as Ordinary Seaman on the “Veritas” of Cowes, anchored at Dungeness on the census night. e brothers had two sisters, Hilda and Mabel; a er their father’s death in 1898, Lilly remarried, moving to Fareham, and had two further daughters. Not much is known about their younger lives, except that William is recorded in 1911 working as a gardener, while Frederick was a milk boy. Frederick joined the Navy in May 1915, aged 18; his attestation states that he was 5 9½in tall, with fair hair, hazel eyes and fresh complexion. He was stationed initially at HMS Victory I in Portsmouth (now HMS Nelson), before joining HMS Hampshire in November 1915. Like William Waterman, he was aboard Hampshire during the Battle of Jutland on May 31st – June 1st 1916. When Hampshire was sunk 4 days later, he was Cook’s Mate, 2nd Class, still only 19 years old. Frederick Spedding, William Waterman, and the other casualties from HMS Hampshire are commemorated – “Final resting place unknown” - on Portsmouth Naval Memorial, alongside around 25,000 other British and Commonwealth sailors lost in the two world wars. Frederick’s elder brother William had joined the Navy in 1913; shorter than his brother, he was 5 1¼, and blue-eyed, and served aboard 7 Navy vessels before joining HMS Partridge on 31st August 1916 as O cer’s Steward, 2nd Class. Partridge was an M-class destroyer completed in June that year, seeing most of her service in the North Sea, protecting trawlers and merchant ships from German submarines. On 11th December 1917, along with HMS Pellew and 4 armed trawlers. e following day, the convoy was attacked by a otilla of German destroyers; Partridge was repeatedly hit by shells and torpedoes, and sank, around 50 miles o Bergen. 24 crew members survived; among the 97 dead were William Spedding, aged 22, and Edward John Buley, of Portsmouth, who had survived the sinking of the Titanic five years previously. Like his brother Frederick, William is commemorated on Portsmouth Naval Memorial, while their nal resting places lie around 150 miles apart, in the northern North Sea. HMS Hampshire (by H. Symonds & Co of Portsmouth) she was sent to escort 6 merchant ships across the North Sea to Bergen, Norway, leaving the Shetlands Thank You from Barry’s Farm A huge thank you for the recent donations to Barry’s Farm in Frost Lane. Another £151.16 has been transferred across to the Mole Valley account to go towards food and equipment for the animals. If you would like to make a cash donation to the Farm please pop it into the pot in e Herald O ce. Online donations can be made via the gofundme page: gofund.me/ 3da1d7 Cards by local artist Christine Jones, of some of the animals past and present at the farm, are on sale at e Herald o ce priced at £2 each (cash only).
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