All eight chapters of A Life Cut Short – The Edited Letters of Lieutenant Commander Ralph Lyall Clayton, 1885 – 1916 are up now.
Chapter One – ‘Ever your loving son… Letters from School and Britannia’ detail his time at Eagle House School and Marlborough, followed by Cadet training on the Naval Training Ship, Britannia.
Chapter Two – HMS Hannibal tells of when he was a young Midshipman on HMS Hannibal, one of the Majestic class of first class pre-dreadnought battleships.
Chapter Three – HMS Grafton – The First Year tells of his first year aboard HMS Grafton in 1902.
Chapter Four is about his time on board HMS Grafton.
Chapter Five is about when he became a senior midshipman in HMS Grafton and was first introduced to torpedo boats.
Chapter Six – Sub Lieutenant – Ralph arrives at the Royal Naval College Greenwich to train for the last of the exams which will qualify him to become an acting Sub Lieutenant.
Chapter 7 – The Beginning of the End – We pick up the story of the life of Ralph Clayton in June 1913 when he joined the prestigious Battle Cruiser, Queen Mary.
Chapter 8 – The Last Chapter – Sadly, we now come to the moment when Lieutenant Commander Ralph Clayton’s life, in common with 1,265 others, was finally cut short at the Battle of Jutland on May 31st, 1916. Chapter Eight brings his story to an end.
Letter from Gideon Haigh – 17/2/21
A letter came from Gideon Haigh asking about the midshipman George Vernon who sailed with Ralph Lyall Clayton and deserted on a visit to San Francisco in May 1903. Read more
