Robert Greenwood Hutchinson

Robert Greenwood Hutchinson. 222014. Able Seaman. HMS "Good Hope", Royal Navy, killed in action, 1st November 1914.

Image from, "Craven's Part in the Great War."

The armoured cruiser HMS "Good Hope" was detached from the Grand Fleet, when war was imminent, to Halifax, Nova Scotia in the belief that German liners in New York were really armed merchant cruisers prepared to harass merchant shipping. When this proved incorrect, and German ships were detected off South America "Good Hope" sailed to the South Atlantic.

In August 1914 Rear-Admiral Sir Ernest Troubridge avoided interception of the German battlecruiser "Goeben", on its way to Turkey. He was accused of cowardice. This sent shock-waves through the naval establishment.

The Pacific and South Atlantic, especially troopships from Australia and New Zealand, were being threatened by the German China Squadron, commanded by Admiral Graf von Spee. The German ships were modern and powerful, crewed by the best men in the German navy. The "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" were able to outgun the best the Royal Navy had, except for the latest Dreadnought battlecruisers.

The British naval presence in the area consisted of old armoured cruisers, or fast light cruisers too weak to challenge the Germans.

Rear Admiral Cradock and H.M.S. “Good Hope”

Rear-Admiral Christopher Cradock, who had made the "Good Hope" his flagship in mid-August, was a brave officer, he was well aware of the deficiencies of his ships and urged the Admiralty to send modern reinforcements. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe and Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty refused, because they had decided that all the navy's modern assets were needed at Scapa Flow to keep the German High Seas Fleet penned in its North Sea bases. Prince Louis of Battenberg, First Sea Lord and Sir Doveton Sturdee, Chief of the War Staff were convinced that two battlecruisers could be spared. An old and slow pre-Dreadnought, the "Canopus" was sent out instead, more of a target than an asset.

While Cradock was coaling at Port Stanley, on October 18th 1914, it was reported that "Canopus" had engine trouble and, after 5 days of repair, could not make more than 12 knots. Cradock decided he could not catch the Germans with this handicap and left her in the Falklands while he set out to bring von Spee to battle, off the coast of Chile.

The Admiralty was informed and Churchill became alarmed, saying that it was his intention that "Canopus" be a citadel round which the "cruisers in those waters could find absolute security". This was not a plan with any hope of success.

Cradock's old armoured cruisers, "Good Hope" and "Monmouth", were manned almost totally by reservists, "Good Hope's" crew were 90% reservists only just called up, having had no real gunnery practice, in contrast to the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau", winners of the German Navy's top gunnery award for the past two years. Added to all this the old design of the British ships meant that their main armament was mounted too low to be brought into action in the heavy seas found in the area.

The outcome of the encounter was inevitable. Cradock felt he had to fight to avoid accusations of cowardice. The German ships, with their superior qualities, waited until the British ships were silhouetted against the afterglow of the setting sun and sunk both the flagship, "Good Hope" and "Monmouth" with the loss of 1,500 lives, including Cradock. No-one saw "Good Hope" go down at around 2000 hrs, the "Leipzig" steamed NW toward a dull glow, thought to be the "Good Hope" burning, when she reached the position only a few pieces of floating debris remained of Kit Cradock's flagship and her valiant crew.

The Memorial to Admiral Cradock in York Minster

This defeat at the Battle of Coronel, was the first time British naval supremacy had been seriously challenged since Trafalgar. The two battlecruisers "Invincible" and "Inflexible", with five other cruisers, were sent to the South Atlantic, commanded by Admiral Sturdee. Graf von Spee's squadron was destroyed at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8th December 1914, with the loss of 2,100 men.

Robert Hutchinson was born in 1885, the son of Mary and Robert Greenwood Hutchinson, a farmer and joiner, of Dent in the Yorkshire Dales. His mother was living in the "Dog Kennels", Field Broughton at the time of his death, his father having died in 1912. The local press named him as, “the brother of Harry Hutchinson of Lindale.” Robert is recorded in the 1911 Census as an Able Seaman on the battleship H.M.S. Venerable, stationed in the Far East. He is commemorated on the war memorials at Lindale, Field Broughton and Dent.

His name appears on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Hampshire, Panel 2.