HMS Good Hope, Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock’s flagship, was destroyed by Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee’s squadron before it could fire a shot.
Who was Canada’s first casualty in the First World War?
It’s hard to say since Canada, as a dominion of the British Empire, automatically went to war on Aug. 4, 1914, when Britain entered it against Germany in support of its Russian and French allies.
Although the Canadian Expeditionary Force didn’t land in France until early 1915 — the Canadian Army consisted of barely 3,000 men when war was declared — some Canadians who were already overseas almost certainly joined British units that went into action right away.
British regiments were fighting in the battle of Alsace as soon as Aug. 7 that year and there were 7,000 casualties. By early October, the fighting on the Marne, at Mons and Ypres had already claimed more than half a million casualties on both sides and there were probably Canadians among them although you’d have to sift through British army records to find them.
The first recorded Canadian casualties at I’ve been able to find, though, were four lads from the newly minted Royal Canadian Navy — it was only established in 1910 — who were killed in a disastrous sea battle in the Pacific that’s largely overshadowed by the monstrous carnage that seized Europe.
Malcolm Cann, 18, John Hatheway, 19, William Palmer, 20, and Arthur Silver, 20, were four midshipmen who had been in the first class of the newly founded Royal Navy Colleges of Canada in Halifax.
When war broke out, Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, commanding the Royal Navy’s North American and West Indies station, was visiting Halifax.
When Germany’s East Asia squadron of five powerful cruisers commanded by Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee threatened British commerce in the eastern Pacific — there was a panic in Vancouver over the German marine menace and Japan sent a battleship to defend the Strait of Juan de Fuca from the Germans — Cradock was ordered find and engage the German fleet.
He transferred his flag to the armoured cruiser HMS Good Hope and, being short four junior officers, asked that Silver, the chief cadet captain, and Palmer, who was the top of his class and senior midshipman, join his gun crew. Cann and Hatheway were drawn by lots.
Cradock’s squadron consisted of his new flagship, built in 1901; HMS Monmouth, a smaller cruiser built the same year; the light cruiser HMS Glasgow; and the lightly armed merchant ship Otranto. A much larger but obsolete battleship, HMS Canopus, was assigned but was so old and slow that it couldn’t keep up when Cradock dashed for the South Pacific.
Von Spee’s squadron included the cruisers Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Leipzig, Dresden and Nurnberg, which had greater speed, armament and range than Cradock’s ships.
The squadrons met late on the afternoon of Nov. 1, 1914, about 80 kilometres off the coast of Chile which was neutral, had a large German immigrant population and coal with which von Spee planned to refuel.
The British squadron found itself silhouetted by the setting sun and the German ships opened fire at long range. Before his crew could even return fire, Cradock’s flagship exploded and sank with all hands, including the four Canadian midshipmen and the admiral who had chosen them. HMS Monmouth was sunk two hours later. There were 1,600 sailors killed. It was the worst British naval defeat in a century.
But HMS Glasgow and the Otranto escaped.
But when von Spee rounded Cape Horn to evade a large joint Australian and Japanese task force, the Royal Navy was waiting at the Falkland Islands with a powerful squadron, including two modern battle cruisers. On December 8, the four German ships were pursued and sunk. Von Spee and two of his sons were killed and 1,800 German sailors perished.
One of the Royal Navy ships most heavily damaged, the cruiser HMS Kent, limped around Cape Horn and had its battle damage repaired at Esquimalt.
The names of the four young midshipmen who were among the very first Canadians to die in battle in the First World War whose names we know are commemorated on the Halifax Memorial.
