Died
31 May 1916 at the Battle of Jutland Aged 51 years
Born
4 September 1865
Sources
Wikipedia
Ancestry
Place
Walks
Themes
James Fagence
Chief Stoker
IN MEMORY OF
SARAH THE BELOVED WIFE OF
JAMES FAGENCE
WHO DIED 24TH FEBRUARY 1914
AGED 44 YEARS
ALSO THE ABOVE JAMES FAGENCE
WHO LOST HIS LIFE ON
H.M.S. QUEEN MARY
MAY 31ST 1916 AGED 51
MISSED BY SONS AND DAUGHTERS
James Fagence was a Chief Stoker on the H.M.S. Queen Mary (Service no. 133720) and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial (panel 15)
HMS Queen Mary was the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before World War I. The sole member of her class, Queen Mary shared many features with the Lion-class battlecruisers, including her eight 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns. She was completed in 1913 and participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight as part of the Grand Fleet in 1914. Like most of the modern British battlecruisers, she never left the North Sea during the war. As part of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, she attempted to intercept a German force that bombarded the North Sea coast of England in December 1914, but was unsuccessful. She was refitting in early 1915 and missed the Battle of Dogger Bank in January, but participated in the largest fleet action of the war, the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916. She was hit twice by the German battlecruiser Derfflinger during the early part of the battle and her magazines exploded shortly afterwards, sinking the ship.
Her wreck was discovered in 1991 and rests in pieces, some of which are upside down, on the floor of the North Sea. Queen Mary is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 as it is the grave of 1,266 officers and men. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Queen_Mary#Battle_of_Jutland for more detail on her role in the Battle of Jutland and how she was sunk.
Ancestry has the following:
1911 Census (listed under Faginer) and living at 136 Anson Street, Barrow, are James Fagence (46), engine drive electric xxxx (unreadable) in the shipyard, born Horsley, Surrey; Sarah Fagence (42), born Southborough, Kent; Harry G. Fagence (15), apprentice coppersmith in the shipyard; William John Fagence (13), scholar; Sarah Emily Fagence (9) scholar (DoB 10 Nov 1901); Gertrude Elizabeth Fagence (8), scholar (DoB 18 Dec 1902). All the children were born in Portsmouth, Hants.
James was born in West Horsley on 4 September 1865, and got married on 6 Jan 1891 in the Rural Deanery of Medway, Kent. According to the 1871 Census, his family were farm labourers in West Horsley. By the 1881 Census, his father had died and his mother, a laundress, had moved to George Farm, Guildford Road in Ripley, Surrey. James is listed as a bricklayer’s labourer, out of employment. In some documents, the surname is spelt Fageance. The 1891 Census has James, stoker, Royal Navy, with wife Sarah, living as lodgers at 61 High Street, Gillingham, Kent.
Probate was granted on James Fagence’s estate on 7 August 1918 to Harry George Fagence, coppersmith. The value was £117 3s 8d.
According to the Register of Seamen’s Services, James had joined the Navy on 1 June 1885, signing up for 12 years. He is listed as a ‘carman’, more usually called a carter. He must have signed for a further 10 years, because he left on 3 June 1907, joining the Reserve the following day. Before the outbreak of war he was called up (2 August 1914), and joined HMS Queen Mary on 23 September 1914, spending all his WW1 career with her.
