Chatham in the Great War

Discover a coastal English town’s vital role in WWI with this local history covering Royal Navy actions and the pursuit of escaped German prisoners.

Home to one of the Royal Navy’s three major dockyards, Chatham played a very important part in Britain’s Great War effort. Only six weeks into the war, residents took a major blow as three vessels from the Chatham Division—HMS Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue—were sunk by a German submarine. Two months later, the battleship HMS Bulwark exploded and sunk whilst at anchor off of Sheerness on the Kent coast.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however. Winston Churchill, as the First Lord of the Admiralty, visited Chatham early in the conflict. Two German prisoners of war, Lieutenant Otto Thelen and Lieutenant Hans Keilback, escaped from Donnington Hall in Leicestershire—only to be re-captured in Chatham four days later.

By the end of the war, Chatham and the men who were stationed there had truly played their part in ensuring a historic Allied victory. This volume vividly captures the town’s service, sacrifice, and legacy.