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Relationship to me - husband of niece of husband of 2nd great-aunt.
William Pillar
(1883 - 1970)
William Pillar was born in Brixham in 1883, son of John Pillar (1857-1893) and Sarah Jane Hall (1860-1943).He was the second son of four children - his older brother John (b.1880), sister Elsie (b.1887) and brother Leonard (b.1889). According to the 1901 census, at the age of 18, William is listed as a fisherman and shown as 4th hand/ Cook on the trawler Reaper in Newlyn Harbour. In July 1909 he married Edith Kate Johnson (1885 - 1951). Edith Johnson was the niece of George Bath Johnson (1861-1951) & Bertha Gempton (1861-1952).
The sailing trawler Provident (BM291) was built by Sanders & Co, Galmpton on the edge of the River Dart. The Lanfear Sailing Trawler Database (see www.brixhamsailingtrawlers.co.uk) lists William Pillar on 21/10/1910 as the Owner/Master of the Provident with a home address of 81 Mount Pleasant Road. On the 01/01/1915, the Provident and crew were involved in the rescue of 71 crew of the stricken battleship H.M.S Formidable having been sunk by 2 torpedoes from the German U-Boat U24. The survivors had taken to the lifeboats when the Provident came across one of the boats whilst fishing. An account of the rescue taken from the "Brixham Western Guardian" is shown below.
First Hand, William Carter. Skipper, William Pillar. 2nd Hand, John Clarke. Appentice/Cook, Dan Taylor
On 30 January 1915, while the event was still uppermost in everyone's minds, the Devonshire Association gathered in London to present Captain Pillar with an illuminated address. It was a huge event (to which several Brixham dignitaries were also invited) and the presentation was made by George Lambert M.P, who at the time was Civil Lord of the Admiralty. In his speech, George Lambert describes the rescue in his own words ending with - "The rescue was only effected by careful and splendid seamanship, and not without danger to the fishing smack. An error of half the ship's length would have swamped or crushed the boat,which was holed in several places and kept afloat by baling with sea boots and clothing, and even a leg or arm stuffed into the holes. As the rescue was completed, the small boat was cut adrift and sank almost immediately".
All four members of the crew were presented with the Albert Medal for their gallantry by King George V in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. They also received Gold medals by the Shipwrecked Mariners Benevolent Society together with awards from The Admiralty - "£250 for the Skipper, £100 for each of the crew and £50 for the young boy." Leonard Pillar, William's 9 year old nephew was also on board on the day of the rescue acting as "cabin boy" but was regarded as "a child" and an unofficial crew member so he received no official recognition for the part he played.
Leonard Pillar became a hero for the second time in his life during the Second World War. The family had moved to Cardiff in 1932 and, having served as a captain on a minesweeper, he was invalided out of the navy in 1942. He returned to his trade of fishing, and during one expedition in the Bristol Channel an enemy opened fire as it headed to bomb the Milford Haven oil refinery. Leonard Pillar manned the ship's gun and despite being shot in the legs managed to shoot the plane down. His bravery earned him an OBE. It took him 15 weeks to recover from his injuries in hospital.
On 16 July 1917 two other Brixham fishermen, Second Hand William Brett and Bosun Leonard Pillar ( William Pillar's brother), gained Distinguished Service Crosses when a U-Boat surfaced and attacked their trawler Asama while it was fishing, and guarding a Belgian trawler. The Asama, under A.L.Petheridge of the Royal Naval Reserve returned fire , and despite losing its mizzen mast and receiving damage to its engine room, which killed the engineer, it kept the submarine at bay for an hour and three quarters, thereby allowing the Belgian ship to escape. The Asama eventually sank but the crew were rescued by a British destroyer.
Provident BM28
On 05/12/1916, almost a year after the rescue, BM291 Pilgrim was sunk by a German U-Boat whilst fishing with the rest of the Brixham Fleet in the English Channel. Provident was the first to come under fire being hit multiple times but the crew managed to take to their small boat to escape. Despite being fired on as they pulled away from the stricken trawler, the crew survived. Seven of the Brixham trawlers were sunk on that day. (See World War 1 link)
She was replaced in 1924 with another Provident (BM28), built with a government grant awarded in recognition of the " heroic rescue of men from the Formidable". Provident was built in the same yard as the first ship - Sanders & Co at Galmpton of the banks of the River Dart. She fished out of Brixham for 10 years before being sold to a wealthy American and was converted to a private yacht.
After being laid up in Cornwall during the second world war, she arrived in Salcombe in South Devon in 1951, as the founding vessel of the Island Cruising Club. In the late 1980's, Provident underwent a major refit and was re-launched in 1991. She continued to sail with the Club until 1999, when she started working from Brixham as part of the newly-formed Trinity Sailing Foundation joining 2 other sailing trawlers - Leader & Golden Vanity. All three trawlers were built at the Gibbs/Sanders Yard in Galmpton Creek on the banks of the River Dart between 1892 and 1924.(see team@trinitysailing.org)
In August 1940, the Royal National Lifeboat Association presented Captain Pillar with a Certificate of Thanks recording that he was "Second Coxswain for seven and three quarter years and a member of the Torbay Lifeboat for sixteen and three quarter years during which period the lifeboat rescued 136 lives from shipwreck. The Committee of Management are glad to place on record this testimony of his personal participation in the Lifeboat Service." The Certificate can be seen inside Brixham Lifeboat Station.(see images in Torbay Lifeboat link)
In January 2010, Brixham Town Council/Torbay Civic Society erected a "blue plaque" to the "Heroes of Provident BM291" and is located on the wall of the Mission To Deep Sea Fisherman. William Pillar lived to be 87 and his name lives on in his native Brixham immortalised by streets named after him - Pillar Avenue, Pillar Close and Pillar Crescent - all to be found in the vicinity of the cricket ground.
John Pillar
William's father John died at sea at the age of 36 years when he was only 10 years old. His death was typical of the fate of many fishermen in pursuit of their potentially hazardous way of life.
H.M.S Formidable
Extract from the ‘Brixham Western Guardian’ 7th January 1915
It was officially announced that the battleship Formidable was sunk on Friday morning in the Channel, whether by mine or submarine (German u-boat U24) was not certain. The Formidable was a twin screw battleship of the pre-Dreadnought class, of which there were eight in the Navy. She was 420 feet long, 75 feet beam, of 15,000 horse power, had a speed of 18 knots, and carried a complement of 760 men.
As far as could be ascertained the disaster to the Formidable occurred out of sight of land. The weather became very tempestuous and the waves were running high. At one moment the moon would be shining brightly; at the next dark clouds hid her light. there was no sign of the lurking enemy and it was not considered probable that there were mines so far down the Channel. Without the slightest warning however, there was an explosion on the starboard side of the Formidable, in such a spot that she was not only disabled but narrowly escaped the fate of her sistership, the Bulwark, the remarkable disaster to which had been witnessed by many of her crew. The ship took a list to starboard, but there was no panic. Officers and men manifested great coolness, boats,barges and woodwork were at once got over the starboard side, one of the barges being capsized and the occupants thrown into the raging sea.
It was not until a second explosion occurred on the port side of the battleship that it became evident that it was a case of every man for himself and that a great disaster was inevitable. Distress signals were sent up and it was more than an hour before the Formidable turned turtle and disappeared. Before that however, the other battleships had followed the instructions of the Admiralty following the North Sea disaster, and got clear away from the fatal spot.
SEVENTY SURVIVORS LANDED AT BRIXHAM.
After being in their open cutter for nearly 12 hours, two officers and 69 men of the battleship were rescued by the Brixham fishing smack Provident some 15 miles from Berry Head. When taken on board the trawler they were accomodated in the engine-room, cabin and fish-hold, but such a number was a big tax on the carrying capacity of the boat. They were in a pretty bad way for they were less than half-clad, indeed some of them were not covered by a shilling’s worth of Navy clothing, but remarkably cheerful despite their experiences. During the night it rained, hailed and blew, and they were very fortunate to reach safety, for every two or three minutes the cutter was washed by the waves, and it was only men with a superb constitution who would have come through such a terrible ordeal. “Quite sixty out of the seventy men took off their boots and used them as balers,” said one survivor. “We were baling all the time, and managed to keep the water under. We worked with a will, though we were very glad when the Provident, after grand seamanship, saved us all.”
WELCOME HOSPITALITY ON SEA AND LAND
The needs of the men were attended to on board the smack. All the Provident’s stock of food was fairly divided and all the cigarettes and tobacco the men possessed was used. Hot coffee was continuously made by little Dan Taylor, the cook, who was quite a hero. On nearing Brixham, the Provident fell in with the tug Dencade,which towed her in, and she was berthed at the pier. The rescued men who were in a pitiable condition gave a hearty British cheer – the like of which only British tars could give – and sang “Auld Lang Syne,” and then in batches of four and five wrapped in blankets, they were taken, by waiting cabs, to the Bolton Hotel, the Globe, the Cafe, the Sailors’ Institute and Doidge’s, these being the distributing centres. Here the men were provided with hot food and warm clothing and either went to bed at these places or went into private houses which were thrown open to them.
HEROIC BRIXHAM SKIPPER
William Pillar, owner and skipper of the trawler is quite a young married man, not much over 30 years of age and all the crew are young men. It appears that about 9 o’clock on Friday morning the Provident was racing through mountainous seas of the Channel before a south-west gale with the hope of making Brixham Harbour. The foam-capped waves were running mountains high, but the sturdy little craft was handled with fine seamanship for which Brixham is famed.Off the Start the trawler had to heave-to owing to the force of the wind, and just at that moment the vessel was struck with a particularly heavy sea. She had been running rigged with a reefed mainsail, a reefed foresail, and no jib.
THE DISTRESS SIGNAL
Hardly had the decision to heave-to been arrived at when the third hand, John Clarke, noticed a boat being tossed about like a cork on the waves some little distance off. He shouted to the captain and the mate to jump up, saying, “Here’s a sight under our lee!” They were amazed to see a small open boat drifting amid the mountainous seas, with a boat hook hoisted as a staff, from which was flying a sailor’s black scarf. One moment the boat would appear on the crest of a wave high up, and then it would be lost to sight for several minutes. With hardly a though of the collossal risk the captain and crew at once set about rescuing the men in the boat. After a great struggle they managed to haul down the second reef of the mainsail and set the storm jib. The cutter, which had been riding at a sea-anchor rigged by the men, drifted towards the Provident, but in the mountainous seas they missed each other, and the naval boat passed out of sight of the men on the smack. For the moment they thought she was lost.
A GREAT FEAT OF SEAMANSHIP
Clarke climbed the rigging, and presently discovered the cutter making heavy weather of it just to leeward. Captain Pillar gybed his vessel a very dangerous undertaking in such weather since the mast was liable to give way. Four times did the gallant smacksmen seek to get a rope to the cutter. Each effort was more difficult than the last, and it was only after between two and three hours’ hard fight with the seas and after four attempts, that the Provident obtained a good berth on the port tack, and a small warp was thrown and caught by the naval men. When made fast, the warp was coiled around the Provident’s steam capstan, and with great skill the cutter was hauled to a good berth astern. Then the warp was passed around the lee side, and the cutter was drawn up under the lee quarter.
JUMPING ON THE SMACK
The bluejackets at once commenced jumping from the boat to the smack, and although this was a hazardous task, in the heavy seas that were running 30 feet high, they accomplished it successfully in true navy fashion. All were rescued by one o’clock and a course was then shaped for Brixham. Of the small number of lifeboats to survive the launch, one, with some 70 men on board, drifted in the Channel for hours the next day, hoping for rescue. there was plenty of shipping about but mountainous seas meant that no-one spotted the little boat bobbing up and down in the waves. Then, as night drew on once more, a young women walking with her parents on the sea shore at Lyme Regis, glimpsed the outline of a small boat and raised the alarm. Of the men on this boat, 14 had died out in the Channel while waiting rescue and had been buried at sea, 6 were found dead on arrival and a further 3 died after landing at Lyme Regis. Different sources give the number of crew on board H.M.S Formidable as being between 750 and 780. Of these men, 547 were to lose their lives, many of them in the ship's boats which were smashed or swamped as they were lowered into the stormy waters.
Footnote: A book is available by author Steve Dunn - H.M.S Formidable - which includes a descriptive account of the rescue and the fate of the Battleship's crew.
Image taken from a painting by Brixham Artist - Peter Archer
Image of William Pillar and crew with some of the 71 sailors rescued following the sinking of H.M.S Formidable 01/01/1915
September 2024. The above paper clippings were provided by Kate Berry, great grandaughter of John Sanders from a collection by Michael Stubbings (grandson of John Sanders). John Sanders built BM291 & BM28, "Provident" in his yard at Galmpton on the River Dart.
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