The loss of HMS Invincible

On this day in 1916, HMS Invincible was blown in two at the Battle of Jutland and sank almost immediately. There were six survivors out of a crew of 1027. Amongst the dead were two Chailey men, Sidney George Augustus Bristow and Cecil Langridge. Aged just 16, Cecil was the youngest of Chailey's servicemen to be killed in action. Sidney, at 22, also counts as one of the parish's younger fallen.

Today, both men's names can be seen on the Chailey war memorial and on the Naval memorial at Portsmouth.

On this day too, in 1911, my maternal grandmother, Emily Whellams, was born. Her story can be read on my Whellams website. Had she lived she would have been 96 years old today.