Coronel, a local connection...

William Thomas Yarker(Langley)

The great Domesday Book mentions the village of Marske-by-the-Sea on the North East Coast of England as being a small fishing village. 

By 1885 it was still a small village but had increased in size when Ironstone had been located in the nearby Errington Hill...

 This enterprise brought hundreds of miners and their families into the village, one of which was the Yarker family who moved into 23 Chapel Street, along with thier son William Thomas Yarker. William Thomas had been born in the nearby mining village of ‘Lofthouse’ (Loftus as it is now known) in 1885. 

The Yarker family had moved by the 1891 Census to 23 Chapel Street, Marske-by-the-sea so that Thomas Yarker, William’s father could take up work as a miner in the expanding Ironstone concern of Pease and Partners nearby. 

By 1901 William who was 16 years old by then and had finished school, was working as a ‘Cycle Engineer’ 

The Royal Marines trace their beginnings to their formation in 1664, under Charles II, named the ‘Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot. 

Then in 1755 a permanent Marine Corps of 5,000 marines was established and grouped into 50 companies under three divisions: Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth. 

It became the ‘Royal Marines’ in 1802, largely at the instigation of Admiral the Earl St Vincent, they were titled the Royal Marines by King George III. 

These had originally been manned by the Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery, but a lawsuit by a Royal Artillery officer resulted in a court decision that Army officers were not subject to Naval orders, and so the royal Marine Gunners were grouped into the Royal Marine Artillery. 

The RMA uniforms remained the blue of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and they were nicknamed the "Blue Marines" 

The infantry element, who wore the red uniforms of the British infantry, becoming known as the "Red Marines".

In 1855 the Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI) was formed, followed by the Royal Marine Artillery (RMA) in 1859. The RMLI and RMA merged in 1923 to form a single Royal Marine Corps.

William was posted to his first ship HMS Renown…on January 1st 1903, and as number 11/156 was part of the ship’s ‘compliment’ until December 1903.

Serving successively in HMS Bulwark January to December 1904, HMS Victory 1905-1906, after posting to HMS Sapphire and Greyhound. 

Before returning to HMS Victory in April 1909. 

He was finally ‘Paid off’ on 12th August 1911, and placed on the ‘Reserve’ for a mandatory 5 years...

HMS Good Hope was a 'Drake Class' cruiser, built by Fairfield’s of Govan on the Clyde in 1901 and commissioned in 1902. 

Displacing around 14,000 tons, 533 feet in length and 71 feet across the beam.

It’s 43 Belleville boilers developed 30,000 Horsepower, enabling two 4-cylinder triple expansion engines to provide up to 23 knots of speed. 

With a draught of 26 feet and carried 2 Single breech loading 9.2-inch Mark Ten guns, each in turrets one forward and one aft. 

A secondary armament of 16, BL 6-inch Mark seven guns were arranged in casemates or ‘barbettes’ along each side, this however meant during adverse weather these guns could not be used, and they had to be run back into the casemate and a set of watertight doors were then closed to prevent sea ingress. 

In 1913, HMS Good Hope had been laid up in the ‘Naval Reserve’ but was taken up again when war became imminent. 

In early August 1914, the German East Asia Squadron abandoned Germany’s concession in Tsingtao China, fearing the Japanese who had a significant navy declaring war against them. 

The squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral Maximilliam Von Spee formed up at the Marianas Islands.

The Royal Navy recognising this threat to maritime war trade, despatched ships to endeavour to destroy the German Squadron. Rear-Admiral Cristopher Craddock with his squadron consisting of armoured cruisers HMS Good Hope, and Monmouth and with attachment of the light cruiser HMS Glasgow and the armed merchantman HMS Otranto, along with the pre-dreadnought HMS Canopus made up the South Atlantic Flotilla.

Rear-Admiral John Craddock was also meant to have the newer and more powerful cruiser HMS Defence, but the Admiralty temporarily diverted Defence to patrol the Western Atlantic and South American coast. 

This force was totally out classed by the Kriegsmarine force of SMS Scharnhorst, and SMS Gneisenau, with their 8.2-inch guns. As well as the light cruisers SMS Dresden, Leipzig and Nurnberg which were also part of the German force.

The Admiralty having ordered Admiral Craddock, who at that point was working his way down the east coast of South America, searching for German the raiders and any merchantmen, to "concentrate a strong-enough squadron off the southern coast of Chile". 

His main force, being the two old, armoured cruisers Good Hope (Flagship) and Monmouth, both ships were newly commissioned and manned with large numbers of reservists.

 They would be no match for the worked-up 8.2in-armed Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with their crack gunnery, neither was light cruiser Glasgow and the armed merchant cruiser Otranto a match for the German light cruisers Leipzig, Dresden, later joined by SMS Nürnberg. 

The old 12in-gunned pre-dreadnought battleship Canopus was some 300 miles behind them, convoying British colliers. 

The four British ships were now heading in a northerly direction, 15 miles apart but only searching for the expected Leipzig. 

Glasgow was nearest the Chilean coast and after putting in to Coronel to pick up wireless messages was now approximately 50 miles West of Coronel. 

Smoke was sighted at 1620hrs, and immediately Glasgow confirmed it was not one German light cruiser, but two armoured cruisers! and shortly fell back towards Good Hope. 

Craddock then tried to force an action, whilst the setting sun was behind him and thus blinding the Germans, but they manoeuvred and declined the engagement. 

Instead, von Spee waited for the sun to set, which would leave the British ships silhouetted and his own ships lost in the dusk. Before opening fire around 1900hrs, strong winds and heavy seas meant the British cruisers lower casemate guns could not be worked. 

At 17:10, Cradock decided he must fight, as per his orders and in true Nelsonian fashion he drew his ships closer together. 

Changing course to south-east he attempted to close upon the German ships while the sun remained high. 

Spee declining to engage, turned his faster ships away, maintaining the distance between the forces which sailed roughly parallel at a distance of 14,000 yd. 

At 18:18, Cradock again attempted to close, steering directly towards the enemy, which once again turned away to a greater range of 18,000 yd. 

At 18:50, the sun having set; Spee closed to 12,000 yd (10,970 m) and commenced firing. The German ships had sixteen 8 in guns of comparable range to the two 9.2 in guns on Good Hope. 

Good Hope was hit within five minutes of the engagement's starting. Of the remaining 6 in guns on the British ships, most were closed off in thier casemates along the sides of the ships, which would have flooded if the gun doors were opened to fire in the heavy seas. 

The merchant cruiser Otranto having only 4 in guns and being a much larger target than the other ships retired west at full speed.

Since the British 6 in guns had insufficient range to match the German 8 in guns, Cradock attempted to close on the German ships. By 19:30, he had reached 6,000 yd but as he closed, the German fire became correspondingly more accurate. 

Good Hope and Monmouth caught fire, presenting easy targets to the German gunners now that darkness had fallen, whereas the German ships had disappeared into the dark. Monmouth was first to be silenced. Good Hope continued firing, continuing to close on the German ships and receiving more and more fire. 

By 19:50, Good Hope had ceased firing; and suddenly her forward

section exploded, she then broke apart and sank, without any witness to the sinking.

Scharnhorst, then switched her fire to Monmouth, while Gneisenau joined Leipzig and Dresden and had engaged Glasgow. 

The German light cruisers had only 4 in guns, which had left Glasgow almost unscathed, but these were now joined by the 8 in guns of Gneisenau. 

John Luce, captain of Glasgow, determined that nothing could be gained by staying and attempting to fight so he broke off the engagement.

It had been noticed that each time Glasgow fired, the flash of the guns was being used by the Germans to aim a new salvo, so Glasgow ceased firing. Although one compartment of the ship was flooded, she could still manage 24 kn (28 mph). 

Spee returned first to Monmouth, which was now dark but still afloat. Nothing was to be done for the ship, which was sinking slowly but would attempt to beach on the Chilean coast. Glasgow turned south departing as rapidly as possible.

There was some confusion amongst the German ships however as to the fate of the two armoured cruisers, which had disappeared into the dark once they ceased firing, so a search was begun.

Leipzig spotted something burning, but on approaching found only wreckage. Nürnberg—slower than the other German ships—arrived late at the battle and sighted Monmouth, listing and badly damaged but still moving. 

After pointedly directing his searchlights at the ship's ensign, an undisguised invitation to surrender, which was declined, opened fire again, finally sinking the ship.

Without firm information, Spee decided that Good Hope had escaped and called off the search at 22:15. Mindful of the reports that a British battleship was around somewhere, he turned his squadron North.

There were no survivors from either Good Hope or Monmouth, so 1,600 British officers and men were dead, including Admiral Cradock. Glasgow and Otranto both escaped, the former suffering five hits and five wounded men.

Only two shells had struck Scharnhorst, neither of which exploded: one 6-inch shell hit above the armour belt and penetrated to a storeroom where, in Spee's words, "the creature just lay there as a kind of greeting." Another struck a funnel. In return, Scharnhorst had managed at least 35 hits on Good Hope, but at the expense of 422, 8 in shells, leaving her with only 350 remaining. 

Four shells had struck Gneisenau, one of which nearly flooded the officers' wardroom. A shell from Glasgow had also struck her aft turret and temporarily knocked it out. Three of Gneisenau's men were wounded; she expended 244 of her shells and had 528 remaining.

 Given that the midship gun positions were not in action, one can only imagine what the conditions inside the casemates must have been like. Unable to see outside of the position, using rudimentary communications systems, as well as being able to hear the fall of rounds onto their vessel, it must have been intolerably claustrophobic, not to say extremeley frightening. 

HMS Good Hope sank with all hands, William Thomas Yarker/Langley perished along with his crewmates and is remembered on the Portsmouth Memorial as well as the local war memorial that was erected in Marske-By-The-Sea