Person

Joseph “Joe” Elvin was the second son of George William Elvin, a dock labourer from Norfolk and his Stockton-born wife, Mary Ann Clark. His parents had married in the second quarter of 1878 in Stockton and started their married life in Portrack. By 1891, when Joe was seven, they were living on St Ann’s Hill, Portrack with six children and Mary Ann’s father, a widower and retired brick layer.

At the time of the 1901 census 18 year old Joe was working at a coal yard and still living at home with the rest of the family. On 11 February 1905 Joe married Charlotte Rosetta Bean, a local girl, and by the next census in 1911 he was an iron worker at a local steel plant. Charlotte was at home in Ryan Street with three-year-old Joseph and five-month-old Charlotte having lost two other children.

Joe was a member of the Royal Naval Reserve, and in 1917 served as a stoker on board HMS Vanguard, a St Vincent-class dreadnought battleship launched in February 1909. The ship served in the 1st Battle Squadron during 1914, then in 4th Battle Squadron at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. The ship was involved in action throughout its service but was generally on routine patrol and training in the North Sea.

Just before midnight on 9 July 1917 at Scapa Flow, Orkney, Scotland, Vanguard suffered an explosion, probably caused by an unnoticed fire heating cordite in one of the two magazines which served the midships gun turrets. The ship sank almost instantly and there were only two survivors. In terms of loss of life the destruction of the Vanguard remains the most catastrophic accidental explosion in the history of the UK and one of the worst accidental losses of the Royal Navy.

Joe was one of the 804 men killed in the explosion. The bodies that could be recovered now lie in Lyness Royal Naval Cemetery, Hoy, Orkney, Scotland, where there is also a memorial. The wreck site is now a designated war grave under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Joe and the other crew are remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

Joe’s wife Charlotte never remarried and died in 1957. All four of Joe’s brothers served in world war one and survived the conflict.

Civil Parish: Stockton on Tees

Birth date: 20-Jan-1884

Death date: 09-Jul-1917

Armed force/civilian: Navy

Residence: 7 St Ann’s Hill, Portrack, Stockton-on-Tees (1891 census)
8 Villiers Street, Stockton-on-Tees (1901 census)
6 Ryan Street, Stockton on Tees (1911 census)

Employment: Coal yard worker (1901 census)
Iron worker, steel plant (1911 census)

Family: Parents: George William Elvin, Mary Ann Elvin nee Clark
Siblings: George Henry Elvin, Rose Elvin, Maria Elvin, Charles Elvin, Caroline Elvin, Maud Elvin, John Elvin, Frank Elvin, Nelly Elvin
Spouse: Charlotte Rosetta Elvin nee Bean
Children: Joseph Elvin, Charlotte Elvin ( Louisa Elvin and Hannah Jane Elvin died in infancy)

Military service:

4932S
Stoker
Royal Naval Reserve
HMS Vanguard

Memorial(s): Chatham Naval Memorial

Gender: Male

Contributed by Jean Longstaff, Durham