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261959
Able Sea. Ralph Ernest Cornock
Royal Navy HMS Monmouth
from:Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire
(d.1st Nov 1914)
Ralph Cornock was a petty officer in the Coast Guard service at the outbreak of the Great War. As a reservist, he was immediately appointed to serve on HMS Monmouth, which became part of a squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Christopher Craddock that was tasked with hunting down the German East Asian Squadron of Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee. The German raiders had seriously disrupted British trade in the Pacific, and in October 1914 von Spee arrived off the west coast of South America to attack shipping there.
On 1st of November 1914, the British fleet, consisting of old, slow ships, encountered the superior, better-armed German fleet off the Chilean port of Coronel. The British were routed and HMS Monmouth was sunk with all hands.
Ralph was 44 years old and left a wife and four children. He was one of eight brothers who served in the Great War. He is commemorated on the Wotton-under-Edge War Memorial alongside two of his soldier brothers who were also killed in action.