C/JX172488 William Ernest GATTY, Royal Navy, HMS Encounter: 27/02/1945

Remembering today

Casualty Details | CWGC

C/JX172488 Able Seaman William Ernest Gatty, Royal Navy, HMS Encounter, who passed away aged 25 on 27 February 1945 whilst a POW at Macassar.



Remembered with honour.

 

1939 Register
227 Lynton Road, Bermondsey, London

Name - DOB - Occupation - Marital status
Annie H Gatty - 9 Nov 1899 - Unpaid Domestic Duties - Widowed
The record for this person is officially closed.
William E Gatty - 23 Aug 1919 - Garage Youth Passenger ? - Single

 

Thank you.

 

HMS Encounter, destroyer


TD

HMS Encounter (H 10) of the Royal Navy - British Destroyer of the E class - Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net

 

Originally buried in Makassar War Cemetery, reburied Ambon War Cemetery 1961.

Tim

 

Thanks for these TD, despite having searched online and found dome information, I’d certainly not seen the naval-history page before!

It was most interesting to read that she was ‘under refit’ in July 1940, which fits very neatly with the diary entry of Ivo Poulter, from the COFEPOW site, which records that William joined Encounter on 18 July 1940, the day before her post refit trials were carried out.

Ivo’s diary entry also states that William died on 28 February, but the official records all point to it being the 27th.

HMS Encounter | COFEPOW

 

Thank you, Tim. I’d read that he had died of pellagra, but I was not aware, although should not be surprised I know, of what I presume to be bacillary dysentery.

 

I’ve recently received William’s record and, as I’d expected given what I’d already read here, there’s not a lot to look at. Colour of eyes, hair, height is poignant, makes him so very much more real to me (still never seen a photo of him).

A few redactions, again as expected, and I’m not really sure what they may pertain to or of what significance they may be. As I mentioned on the “MOD Timescale” thread, blanking out his cause of death seems pointless given that information is out there anyway (see above), and I’m also not sure why they’d delete his profession either. Given his employment, or lack of, is presumably there for all to see on the 1939 Census, which I stupidly neglected to look at when I had my brief Ancestry membership, it seems another unnecessary redaction.

I wasn’t sure what the words in brackets meant, Cormorant, Sultan etc, but a quick search revealed that good ol’ Hugh had explained these brackets to previous posters, so I now believe that William would have been at Skegness (Royal Arthur?), Chatham, Rosyth, Gibraltar (Cormorant?), Alexandria and Singapore.

I wasn’t sure at first what the penultimate “ship” listed was, couldn’t decipher it, but then I realised it was “Lanka”, so he’d have been at Colombo.

Mind you, I suppose looking at the ship’s movements would have told me most of those, but it was nice to tax my brain looking them all up.

I was interested to see that for his time as a POW, he was shown as serving again at Pembroke. Why would that be?

The Naval Prize Money award, obviously long after his death, was also a curiosity, I’d always associated that with a long bygone age of capturing enemy vessels!



I do think, however, that it would be better if the powers that be perhaps chose their words a little more wisely on this particular page. “Discharged dead” seems a tad cold and disrespectful, but maybe that’s just me being overly sensitive.

 

Discharged Dead is the time honoured way the RN records death whilst still serving. See P1 of attachments where it is shown as D.D..
As Hugh has previously shown the first named ship on the records shows where the records are held with the ship in brackets being where the rating was serving - hence Pembroke (POW).
Naval Prize Money was paid for enemy ships captured and subsequently either sold or taken up by the Admiralty. Originally paid to the ship effecting the capture. From 1918 all Prize Money was paid into a central Fund and then after the War distributed to all RN personnel. It was abolished in 1948.

Tim

 

Thanks Tim, all excellently explained, and I’d wondered what the DD was.

 

In this case he is shown as PEMBROKE (POW) because that was his Home Port (Chatham) - see his Service No. When he was noted missing in March 1942 his accounting base was LANKA but they would not continue to look after his account after he was declared a PoW - that would fall to HMS PEMBROKE.

The redaction under the part DD, HMS ENCOUNTER would be the cause of his death.

Regards
Hugh

 

Sadly AB Gatty wasn't alone in not surviving his time in Japanese captivity. Seven crew were killed during the sinking, but another 39 died whilst POW's

Lost with the destroyer on 1st March 1942
ADCOCK, Alfred J, Chief Petty Officer, C/J 72656, MPK [ChM]
JAMES, Cyril, Able Seaman, RFR, C/J 111581, MPK [ChM]
KINGAID, Thomas W, Able Seaman, C/JX 167896, MPK [ChM]
MASCALL, Fred A, Ty/Act/Leading Seaman, RFR, C/J 112146, MPK [ChM]
McGEE, Vincent, Leading Seaman, C/SSX 18753, MPK [ChM]
MYNARD, Leonard, Canteen Manager, NAAFI, MPK [ChM]
SHRIVES, Edward H, Stoker 2c, D/KX 116540, MPK [PlyM]

DPOW
ARBUCKLE, Robert, Petty Officer, C/JX 129223, died 28/3/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
ASTBURY, Neville M, Able Seaman, C/JX 185083, MPK 4/3/42 [ChM]
BANKS, Eric, Able Seaman, C/JX 169556, died 12/7/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
BANYARD, Charles E, Stoker 1c, P/KX 130632, died 25/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
BROWN, Oddy W, Able Seaman, RNVR, C/LD/X 2504, died 24/2/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
CHAMBERS, Charles E, Engine Room Artificer 4c, C/MX 56624, died 23/8/43 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
COLE, Ernest G, Able Seaman, C/SSX 32571, died 8/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
CURNICK, Ronald R, Ty/Act/Leading Stoker, C/KX 100719, DPOW 10/2/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
DENHAM, Peter A H, Leading Telegraphist, C/JX 143630, died 12/5/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
DOBSON, Kenneth R, Able Seaman, C/SSX 28042, died 20/3/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
ETHERIDGE, Arthur, Chief Petty Officer Steward, C/L 3410, died 16/3/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
FOGG, William C, Ty/Chief Petty Officer, C/JX 131350, died 26/7/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
GARRATT, William T, Able Seaman, RFR, C/J 84534, died 9/8/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
GATTY, William E, Able Seaman, C/JX 172488, POW, died 27/2/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
GESS, Francis, Stoker 1c, RFR, C/KX 75268, died 27/7/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
GOSSET, Ronald L, Able Seaman, C/SSX 31237, DPOW 9/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
GREGORY, Herbert F, Ty/Chief Petty Officer Stoker, C/K 64771, died 23/3/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
HANWELL, Henry S, Leading Stoker, D/KX 77874, died 14/3/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
HARDING, Sidney G, Able Seaman, C/JX 173891, died 16/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
HAZELTON, David C, Act/Lieutenant, RNR, died 18/9/44 [ChM]
HEAP, George, Able Seaman, C/JX 184002, died 8/2/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
HEFFERMAN, Nelson J, Able Seaman, 68576 (SANF), died 11/2/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
HILLS, Thomas, Able Seaman, C/J 48902, died 22/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
HORN, William H, Able Seaman, RFR, C/J 112019, POW, died 5/3/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
KITCHEN, William, Act/Engine Room Artificer 4c, D/MX 72663, died 11/2/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
KNIGHT, Brian W S, Able Seaman, C/JX 172664, died 25/5/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
McNEILL, Robert, Ordinary Signalman, 2398 (RNZN), died 15/4/44 [YOKOHAMA WAR CEMETERY] [CWGC doesn't identiy a unit]
McPEAK, Gordon, Able Seaman, C/SSX 30721, DPOW 12/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
MORLEY, John, Able Seaman, D/JX 226799, died 20/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
NICOL, Jonathan G, Able Seaman, RFR, C/J 100736, died 14/5/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
RUSSELL, Edmund, Petty Officer Cook, P/M 38592, died 13/2/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
RYAN, Raymond F W, Act/Engine Room Artificer 4c, C/MX 76018, died 19/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
SMITH, Stanley R, Stoker 2c, D/KX 112348, died 24/3/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
USBORNE, Frank E, Ordnance Artificer 1c, C/MX 45570, DPOW 10/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
WALKER, Harry, Engine Room Artificer 1c, C/M 34377, died 17/5/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
WARLOW, Benjamin H, Chief Petty Officer Stoker, D/KX 77226, died 20/4/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
WELSH, Patrick, Stoker 2c, D/KX 121518, died 14/3/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
WILLIAMS, John A, Able Seaman, RFR, C/J 90467, died 13/5/45 [AMBON WAR CEMETERY]
WOOD, Henry R, Stoker 1c, C/K 52154, died 31/1/44 [YOKOHAMA WAR CEMETERY]

 

Many thanks Hugh for this and for pointing me in the right way in the first place to understand those brackets.