I'd be very grateful for help in interpreting a naval record - I am new at this, but am doing some local history research which has involved several WW1 naval officers (none related to me).
Lt Walter S Galpin was on board HMS Glatton at the time of the original explosion in Dover harbour on 16 Sept 1918, according to a family history, and 'placed on retired list 1919 on account of injuries received in the Glatton explosion'.
His record is confusing and at times impossible for me to read but the reason given for his being retired as medically unfit is 'myopic astigmatism', i.e. short sight plus additional defect. I've had this since I was a child, like many people; it's hardly a major disability, but would I think have prevented him being taken on at Osborne in the first place (in 1905). I was expecting burns etc. Also he had been posted to Iron Duke five weeks later and then RN College Keyham, before being retired medically unfit. But I can decipher 'neurasthenia' several times and wonder if he had some kind of post-traumatic stress syndrome without major physical injury as a result of being on board the ship when the explosion happened. A bit like shell shock in the trenches. I even wondered if he had not actually been on board at the time, as they were in the harbour. The subsequent deliberate sinking of the ship would be shattering in any case especially if he had friends trapped below. The eyesight defects would then just be an acceptable reason for being declared unfit.

Has anyone come across mention of this, whether in the case of HMS Glatton or any other naval disaster in WW1? How did the Navy cope with people going to pieces?
Subsidiary question - he nevertheless carried on doing training work and got promoted in retirement to Lt Commander (rtd) in 1923 and Commander(rtd) in 1932, finally retiring in 1946. Can anyone explain this?
Liz

Welcome to the forum,
Have you seen all the files at the National Archives relating to the Glatton?
ADM 1/8538/245 HMS GLATTON sunk in Dover harbour after explosion on 16 September 1918. Casualties 1918
ADM 116/1625 Loss of H.M.S. GLATTON - Court of Enquiry etc. 1918
ADM 137/3791 Loss of HMS GLATTON 1918 Sept 16-Sept 24

Hi

Came across your link regarding HMS Glatton while browsing, on a slighlty different tagent my Great-Uncle was a Stoker Petty Officer on HMS Glatton and was killed along with many of his shipmates on that fateful day in September 1918.

Thanks for the record links at the National Archives, will check them out to see if there is any records or info I may have missed over the years.

TC

Thank you very much both for your welcome to the forum and for those helpful references on the Glatton disaster - I shall try to get to Kew soon, as I am getting a longish list of NA documents I don't think I can access online.
Liz

Liz,

Welcome to the Forum.

Naval personel with a mental problems were usually sent to the Royal Naval Hospital at Great Yarmouth.

Walter could well have been retired solely because of his eyesight as he could no longer watchkeep on the bridge and therefore would not be allowed to go to sea, he would have been given employment on the retired list as he was invalided.

Regards Charles

Thanks, Charles - this spurred me to try harder to identify the scrawled hospital names, which were 'Haslar' (the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, Gosport, I find from Googling) and Queensferry, and in both cases the word 'neurasthenia' is written among other less decipherable things.

I can't help thinking about Pat Barker's 'Regeneration' trilogy about Sassoon and Owen and the hospital at Craiglockhart, where Dr Rivers says at the beginning 'I suppose he is 'shell-shocked'?...It just occurs to me that a diagnosis of neurasthenia might not be inconvenient...' (to save Sassoon from the consequences of his protest about the war) where it is clear that they used that term to refer to people having a breakdown because of their experiences. I think she researched that area thoroughly, though using a work of fiction as a reference is a bit dodgy, of course, and one would need to check the sources she gives. I fear I'm never going to get round to them, though, because my local history project is too wide-ranging, and there are too many things I am inexpert in.

I do realise poor eyesight would have disqualified him from active service, but thought it was odd that the family history insisted that he was retired because he had injuries resulting from being on board HMS Glatton at the time of the explosion. And it does look as though his health problems (apart from 'seasickness in destroyers' which had caused the cancellation of an earlier appointment!) started then, even though I can't decipher them all. 'Astigmatic myopia', by contrast, is written in large clear letters, as if to say 'Here's something uncomplicated we can use!' Maybe the Glatton reports at Kew will shed some light on what happened to individuals. It has struck me as odd I can even see this information when the 1911 census blocks the health column out, and I hope it's OK discussing them on a forum like this.

It's very useful to be given nudges in different directions - thank you. Also from what you say people could/can go on being promoted while working in office or training jobs when 'rtd' - I hadn't understood that although I saw in the Navy Lists of 1918 that HMS President was full of retired officers.
Liz

Liz,

Neurasthenia would be like a diagnosis of Chronic Fatique Syndrome/ME today no pure diagnosis but something is wrong by the number of symptoms displayed and no other answer/diagnosis.

A trip to Great Yarmouth could well have been his last appointment in the RN as it was a fully blown Mental Institution, so as you say the 'eyes have it'

Naval hospital South Queensferry was a general hospital.

Regards Charles

Yes, it's a humane response; easier at the end of the war I suppose (remembering soldiers who were sent back to fight after shell-shock) and where the officer genuinely had other skills, as he did.
Liz

Liz.

As you say, it was probably a bit like shell shock in the trenches but perhaps a degree or two worse. It must have been a tremendous explosion (shook the whole town of Dover). The seasickness pre-dated the explosion, did it? Otherwise damage to the inner ear could have contributed to that.

He became engaged and married in the same year he retired from the navy:

The Times, Monday, Jul 01, 1946
FORTHCOMING MARRIAGES
COMMANDER W. S. GALPIN, R.N., AND MISS HIRAM
The engagement is announced between Com-
mander Walter Sidney Galpin, R.N., of
Grazeley, Crowborough, Sussex, only son of
the late Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Clement Galpin,
of The Moorings, Meads, Eastbourne, and
Margaret Clare Hiram, only daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Walter Percy Hiram, of St. Hilds,
Linden Road, Gloucester.


They married on 4 Sep 1946 at All Saints', Crowborough, by the Rev. L. Gordon Sheldon (Walter's late mother's name given as Beatrice Amy Galpin).

Do you know the year he died?

regards,
Martin

Martin
Thanks very much for your interest in this! Yes, I had found the Times online wedding announcements but I am not sure who his bride was. The only Margaret C Hiram in Gloucestershire I can find would have been 23 while he was 54 in 1946 - possible, I suppose, in which case it's also possible there was a child or children who would still be living, probably, but I don't know that yet either. He died in 1955, according to the naval record. A bit of Crowborough investigation may be needed.
I have found out quite a lot about his parents, who lived in Eastbourne till 1939 (father's death) and for a couple of years longer in his mother's case: or at least, their families - especially his grandfather Thomas Dixon Galpin, the publisher (Cassells), but have only recently discovered Walter thanks to the opening of the 1911 census records.

My starting point was the house, of the address you recorded there from the announcement, and I found to my surprise first one owner, Fred Trumble sr, with a son who was a Lt RN and died in a controversial naval event in the Dover Patrol (Lt Fred HG Trumble in the second Ostend raid 1918) and then the Galpins. Where Trumble was concerned, I did eventually (after about six weeks) get details of his Dartmouth training from the archivist there, so I need to ask him about WS Galpin. The Dover War Memorial people have been immensely helpful with Trumble but as Galpin survived he's not so much within their remit.

Galpin did suffer serious seasickness before the Glatton explosion, and it caused his posting to HMS Mosquito to be cancelled in 1914. As a 13-year-old at Osborne he was described as 'hardworking but slow and dreamy' and he was recurrently called 'painstaking' but not showing enough energy - hard to know how much weight to give to these comments, possibly very little, but it's all I've got. Until further evidence appears, I'll conclude he was more sensitive than most, may have had underlying medical problems and then the explosion triggered some kind of PTD or similar.

He wrote a book called 'From Public School to Navy' in 1920 and 'numerous articles on education and training of naval officers'. (From the family history of the Galpins - extracts online - date seems to be pre-WW2). I haven't seen any of these though I expect some could be found.
Thanks again, Martin. I've also found very interesting Queensland (and Melbourne) connections with the house I'd like to ask you about but they are totally non-naval!
Liz

Interesting, Liz. From his death notice, it doesn't look as if they had any children (usually get a mention):

The Times, Tuesday, Aug 16, 1955
DEATHS
GALPIN.- On Aug. 14, 1955, at Grazeley, Crowborough,
Sussex, COMMANDER WALTER SIDNEY GALPIN, Royal
Navy, dearly loved husband of Margaret (Peggy).
Funeral private. No mourning or flowers, at his request.

Margaret re-married 12 years later, so I guess it's possible there could have been children from the second marriage:

The Times, Friday, Nov 24, 1967
MARRIAGES
GRAY : GALPIN.- On 20th November, 1967,
quietly in London, WILLIAM NICOL
GRAY, Craigielaw, Longniddry, to MARGARET
CLARE GALPIN, 99 Cadogan Gardens, S.W.3,
widow of Commander Walter Galpin, Royal
Navy.



Fire away, Liz, or if you think it's not appropriate here, send me details via PM. I'm originally from Melbourne. Did a quick search of the NAA for Galpin but nothing jumped out.

regards,

Martin

Thanks, Martin, I hadn't got those! No children, then, would be a reasonable deduction.
I will e-mail you about the Australian connections of the house, which do not relate to Galpin (sorry to have given you a wasted search).
Liz

I have just come across my Grandfathers Royal Navy record and have found he was on the Glatton the day it was destroyed. I know little more about this other than a few mixed up family memories. His name was Thomas Henry Matthews and he survived the tragic event, he was 18 or 19 years old at the time.

I would like to know more but my Grandfather died when i was four years old and my Father passed away very recently and he could not remember any real details but was under the impression from what he had heard from his Father that the whole event was to some extent covered up and the full truth of the event never made clear to the public. Are the Royal Navy accounts of the event to be fully believed?

Welcome to forum Darren,
The Court of Enquiry that I mentioned in post#2 was a legal process to determine what happened. I have not read that document, but similar courts called witnesses and were usually thorough in examination. The Admiralty had a huge interest in discovering any flaws in their ships.