Person

Matthew Waugh was born on 3 May 1899 in Sunderland. His father was William Waugh (1872-1915), a Consett born coal miner. His mother was Isabella Waugh nee Harrison (1876-1961), a coalminer’s daughter from Wheatley Hill. His parents married in Chester-le-Street in 1894.

The 1911 census reports that five children had been born to his parent’s marriage of whom three were surviving. This made Matthew the eldest of three boys. In 1901, at the time of the census, the family lived at New Pavilion Terrace, Burnhope. Ten years later, at the 1911 census, they were living in Back Front Street, Lanchester.

Matthew joined the Royal Navy on 9 May 1918 shortly after his nineteenth birthday. He was rated as a stoker 2nd class and given the service number K51444. He spent almost four months training at HMS Victory after which he was posted to HMS Glatton on 31 August 1918.

Glatton was a monitor which was a class of relatively small warship with disproportionately large guns. Such ships were designed for shallow waters and served as coastal defense vessels. HMS Glatton was built on the river Tyne and Matthew joined her crew just over a week before she was completed on 8 September 1918.

HMS Glatton sailed to take up a position in Dover on 11 September 1918. On 16 September 1918 she suffered a fire in one of her 6-inch magazines that ignited the cordite stored there. With the fully loaded ammunition ship Gransha in close proximity there was a grave risk of a massive explosion that would devastate Dover.

An order was given for two destroyers to torpedo Glatton and scuttle her to douse the flames in her magazine. In this action 60 men were killed outright and 124 injured of whom 19 died later from burns. Matthew was one of the fatalities. He is one of 56 men and a single officer buried in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent. He is also honoured on the Portsmouth naval memorial; on three memorials in Burnhope and in the Book of Remembrance commissioned by the colliery where he worked.

For more information:
Commonwealth War Grave Commission
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3057113/waugh,-matthew/

North East War Memorials Project
http://www.newmp.org.uk/detail.php?contentId=6480

Dover War Memorial Project
http://www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk/Casualties/MoreMemorials/Areas/Glatton%20Gillingham/Glatton.htm

Durham at War blog:
http://ww1countydurham.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-sinking-and-raising-of-hms-glatton.html

Civil Parish: Lanchester

Birth date: 03-May-1899

Death date: 16-Sep-1918

Armed force/civilian: Navy

Residence: Back Front Street, Lanchester (1901 census)
New Pavilion Terrace, Burnhope (1911 census)

Employment: Miner (1918 service record)

Family: Parents: William Waugh (1872), Isabella Waugh nee Harrison (1876)
Siblings: Thomas Harrison Waugh (1902), William Waugh (1907)

Military service:

K51444, Stoker 2nd class, HMS Glatton

Medal(s): British War Medal, Victory Medal

Memorial(s): Portsmouth Naval Memorial
Book of Remembrance 1914-18, St John the Evangelist, Burnhope
Garden of Remembrance 1914-18, Burnhope
Plaque 1914-18, Church of St John the Evangelist, Burnhope
Roll of Honour 1914-18, Ritson, Burnhope and Pontop Collieries

Gender: Male

Contributed by David D, Stanley, Co Durham. | With additional research by Burnhope War Memorial Research Group & Durham County Record Office.