Military History

Charles was aboard the HMS Tipperary was it was sunk during the Battle of Jutland and he was killed or drowned. The following is taken from the Wikipedia entry about the sinking of HMS Tipperary.

About 21:58 GMT on 31 May 1916 while 4th Destroyer Flotilla was searching for the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea in the Battle of Jutland she encountered the enemy's 7th Flotilla (destroyers). The Imperial German Naval vessels launched torpedoes at the British ships, none of which hit, and 7th Flotilla then turned away. Nicholas Jellicoe's account states that "Between 23:15 and 23:20 a lookout [on HMS Garland] ... saw what he thought were enemy ships on the starboard quarter". A few minutes later Tipperary flashed the recognition signal and was immediately lit up by the searchlights of three German battleships and three light cruisers. From 23:30 to about 23:34 around 150 5.9-inch shells from SMS Westfalen and SMS Nassau were fired at Tipperary; she was badly stricken by this fire, which left her bridge damaged and most of her forward crew casualties, including her commander, Captain Wintour. At about 02:00 GMT 1 June 1916 she was abandoned, and sank in the following hours due to battle damage. 150 of her crew of 197 were killed in the action, a number of the survivors were rescued from the sea by the Imperial German Navy and transported back to Germany as prisoners of war.

Stoker David Eunson described the sinking: "As we floated away on that awful night, many died of sheer exhaustion and suffering. After drifting for well nigh 5 hours we were picked up at dawn. I saw the Tipperary, a mass of flames, keel over".