Stoker 1st Class 220670 Albert Paige of HMS Natal aged 28 born at Frant on the 15th of January 1887, where he was baptised on the 25th of September, the son of Rose Paige. It would seem that following his birth Rose was unable to bring Albert up on her own, and he was brought up by his maternal grandparents. 

[In 1891, Rose was recorded as an inmate at Sandhill workhouse, Pembury. Aged 20, born at Frant, she is single, her occupation being a domestic servant and she is resident with her three month old son George Frederick Paige. In 1881 she was living with her parents at Martins Farm, Frant. In 1893 she married Albert Hallett and died in 1947.]

The 1891 census records Albert, aged 4, living with grandparents Edward and Frances Paige at Frant Green, Sussex. Edward, aged 68 was an agricultural labourer born in Sussex. Frances, aged 53 was born in Surrey. Children recorded are Frederick, aged 17, employed as an agricultural labourer, William, aged 14, a butcher’s assistant, Benjamin, aged 9, grandson Albert, aged 4 and Fanny, aged 12. 

In 1901, Albert, an agricultural labourer, is living at The Priory with just his now widowed grandmother and her daughter, also Frances, aged 22.

Albert joined the Royal Navy and his naval record states that upon entry into the Royal Navy he was employed as a house boy. He entered the service as a Boy 2nd Class on the 15th of January 1902 and signed up for twelve years. He was 5ft 5” tall, had black hair, Hazel eyes and a dark complexion. He was at the training shore station HMS Impregnable (under which command were training ships such as the Ganges), from the 20th of May 1902 to the 27th of January 1904, during which time had had been promoted to Boy 1st Class on the 14th of May 1903.

His training continued on ships under the overall command of HMS Boscawen, from the 28th of January to the 7th of March 1904. His first ship was the 2nd Class cruiser HMS Brilliant from the 8th of March to the 12th of December 1904. He was then posted ashore to HMS Pembroke I to the 22nd of January 1905.

The following day he went on board the 3rd class cruiser HMS Barham and was promoted to Stoker 2nd Class on the 21st of February 1906 and on the 8th of March he left the ship to go to the shore station HMS Pembroke II where he remained but briefly before going on board the 1st Class cruiser Argonaut from the 5th of June to the 8th of October 1906. On the 9th he was at the shore station HMS Pembroke II, remaining there until the 31st of January 1907 when he was posted to the torpedo gunboat HMS Halcyon which he joined the following day.

Until now his character on all of his ships and shore stations had been Good or Very Good but he committed some unmentioned misdemeanour and was given seven days in the cells on the 17th of May and his character was then described as 'Indifferent'. However, having been punished he behaved himself and on the 11th of September 1907 received promotion to Stoker 1st Class and was given a character reference of Good.

His next posting came on the 1st of April 1909 when he went ashore to HMS Pembroke II. On the 14th of April 1909 he went aboard the battleship HMS Victorious until the 21st of March 1910. On the 22nd he went aboard the battleship HMS Russell and was appointed Acting Leading Stoker on the 22nd of December. On the 29th of August 1911 he returned to his previous rank of Stoker 1st Class.

The 1911 census recorded him aboard ship in the Mediterranean.

He now went through a troubled period being handed down two spells of seven days in the cells, the first being on the 16th of October and the second from the 5th of January 1912. On the 18th of February he was given sixty days detention for insubordination.

At the end of his sentence Albert did not return immediately to his ship but went straight to the base ship HMS Egmont on the 10th of April 1912 before returning to the Russell on the 28th of April. On the 9th of May he was given twenty days detention for absence and on the 12th of August was posted to the shore station HMS Pembroke II. On the 16th of September 1913 he was posted to the armoured cruiser HMS Natal.

Outside of the above record, The Kent and Sussex Courier for the 4th of January 1907 records that Albert and another sailor, William Barlow, based on ship at Sheerness were arraigned before the Tunbridge Wells bench for causing wilful damage of a Landau window at Linden Park and for assaulting one Henry Dumbell, and two policemen. Damage was valued at 2/6d and both men said that they had been drinking. Both were fined £1 each for assaulting the police and £1-8s each for the damage.

On the 25th of November 1915 at St Michael and All Angels, Woolwich, he married Florence Louisa Shrubshall, aged 24, the daughter of Joseph Shrubshall, who signed the register with Maud Shrubshall. Albert was serving on HMS Natal and he and Florence Albert went to live at 20 Lower Pellipar Road Woolwich Kent.

[Interestingly, the marriage register states his father as being labourer Benjamin Paige (deceased). However, this seems unlikely for many reasons, not least the birth record for Albert and the workhouse record for Rose, and no relevant record has been found for a Benjamin Paige.]

To return to Albert and the circumstances of his death on the 30th of December 1915.

HMS Natal was a Warrior Class armoured cruiser of 13,550 tons, launched in 1905. In 1914 she joined the Second Cruiser Squadron and was based at Cromarty Firth in Scotland under the command of Captain Eric Back.

At 3.25pm on the afternoon the ship signalled that there was a fire on board and within five minutes she had capsized and at 3.45 she had sunk. The fire followed a huge explosion of ammunition in one of the ships’ magazines, possibly due to faulty ammunition. As well as the crew there were eleven civilians on board, including seven women, one man and three children who had been invited by Captain Back to attend a film party on the ship. All were killed in the sinking which ultimately claimed four hundred and twenty one lives; four hundred of the crew survived.

Albert did not survive the sinking and his body was never found, he is therefore commemorated on the Chatham Memorial which records the names of 18,656 naval men and women who were lost or buried at sea in both world wars. Albert is also remembered on the War Memorial in Frant Church.

Post war a number of memorials were established to those lost on the ship including a memorial in Durban, South Africa and also the Natal Gardens at Invergordon which were opened in 2000.

The website www.hmsnatal.co.uk records that

“…Cromarty held a commemoration day on 30th September 2015, the 110th anniversary of the launch of H.M.S. Natal. Each of the fifteen H.M.S. Natal graves in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's section of the Cromarty Cemetery were marked with a blue ribbon.  Pupils from Cromarty Primary School placed a single red rose at each grave”. The website itself is a useful and interesting reference source for further reading and research.

As for the wreck, much of it remained above water and posed a navigational hazard. In the 1970s the wreck was demolished and partially salvaged to make it safe for shipping. Following the salvage, the wreck is now a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986