Stoker Herbert Newman went below deck to change his shoes at the ill-fated moment when the HMS Russell hit a mine outside the Grand Harbour 100 years ago.
Yesterday, his grandson, Steven Friday of Chatham, Kent, paid homage to the seaman who drowned as the battleship sank and left four children fatherless.
He laid a wreath in the deep sea just beneath the Boom Defence jetty at the Grand Harbour, to a piper’s notes of Amazing Grace.
Committee members of the Royal Naval Association and the Msida Sea Scouts joined Mr Friday and his wife, Diana, for the solemn ceremony in remembrance of those who lost their lives for their country, including more than 120 aboard the HMS Russell.
“Listening to Amazing Grace will never be the same again… it was a similar experience to the day I carried my father’s coffin,” Mr Friday told this newspaper as the Siege Bell rang its midday toll.
The battleship HMS Russell arrived off the Grand Harbour at nightfall on April 26, 1916. However, the boom defence was already closed for the night, so it was not allowed to enter the harbour. It cruised east of Malta, and shortly before dawn the following day, it began to approach the harbour again.
Mr Newman, who was five feet four inches tall, according to his grandson, was with a friend on the deck. Tucked in his trouser pocket was a picture of his four daughters back in the UK.
It was a similar experience to the day I carried my father’s coffin
He went below deck to change his clogs but at that instant, the ship hit two mines laid by the German submarine U73. The Russell started listing and began to sink by the stern, and Mr Newman’s friend jumped overboard. Some 625 people were rescued, including the friend, who informed Mr Newman’s relatives about his last moments aboard the ship.
Mr Newman’s widow, Alice, had to put two of her daughters – Mr Friday’s mother, Rose, and her sister Laura – into an orphanage. Rose, the eldest, was aged just five when she lost her father.
As the tragedy’s 100th anniversary approached, 71-year-old Mr Friday contacted the RNA in Portsmouth and was put in touch with the local branch. The association held a special remembrance service yesterday, led by Fr Mario Camilleri from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Europe.
The association in Malta will hold its annual Royal Navy Memorial Service by the water fountain in Pieta Gardens, Msida, on Saturday at 11am.
If there are any ex-Navy personnel who would like to join the RNA, they can contact Elaine Zerafa on 2138 8302 or 7955 2987.