WW2 100 – 10 July 1947 – ‘a born ship handler’: Captain Eustace Rotherham (1892-1947), Royal Navy, HMS Arthur

 

Continued from 27 March 1947 - Remembering a Prisoner of the Japanese

CAPTAIN HUBERT JOHN BALE (1898-1947)  

Royal Army Ordnance Corps

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2023/10/ww2-75-prisoner-of-japanese-captain.html

 

 

The grave of Captain Eustace Rotherham in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane, Budleigh Salterton. The headstone’s personal inscription reads:  The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms’

Eustace Rotherham was born far from East Devon, in the Coundon district of Warwickshire. His name does not appear on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, for he must have died after the memorial had been set up with names of WW2 casualties inscribed. Yet he is listed as such by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CGWC), which tells us that his grave is in St Peter’s Burial Ground, on Budleigh’s Moor Lane. 

His death at the early age of 55 and his distinguished naval career, which saw him serve in both World Wars, are further reasons for him to be included in my survey.

He was born on 7 April 1892, the younger of two sons born to Kenneth Rotherham, a silk weaver, and Frances Elizabeth Rotherham, née Eustace.  

 

The last remaining former silk ribbon-weaving factory in Coventry; it stands in New Buildings and was occupied by Exchange and Mart in the 20th century. It had been standing derelict, but was rescued and turned into flats in 2002. Image credit: www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk 

The Rotherham family had strong Midlands roots, particularly in the Coventry area where the silk trade had been active since the 17^th century. Originally silk was woven on hand-looms in people’s houses, but eventually factories replaced home-working. By the middle of the 19th century, half the working population of Coventry was employed in the silk industry.

The firm of Rotherham & Sons in the city’s Crow Lane is listed in the London Gazette of 1866 as specialists in dyed skein silk. Later, we find the firm expanding under the name of Rotherham Howe & Co, silk dyers, now based at 34 Spon Street, Coventry. The 1881 census reveals that it employed 55 men, 8 boys and 24 women.

 

The Rotherham Watchmaking Factory in Spon Street, Coventry. Image credit Mark Singlehurst

Another industry in which the Rotherham family were involved was watchmaking, as seen in the above depiction of their factory, also located in Spon Street. When the watchmaking business expanded in the 1880s the Howe’s silk yard was absorbed into the watch factory.

 

From the Horological Journal July 1927

By 1899, Rotherhams was a major employer and manufacturer, with 400-500 employees plus approximately 200 outworkers, producing 100 watches per day.

The Warwickshire village of Keresley is strongly associated with Rotherhams. A total of nine members of the family are buried in the graveyard of St Thomas’ Church.

 

Keresley Grange. Image credit: Mark Singlehurst

Keresley Grange, pictured above, was built in 1875-76 for John Rotherham Junior (1838-1905) who had taken over control of the watchmaking  firm.  

 

Keresley War Memorial at St Thomas’ Church, Keresley. Image credit: www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk

Eustace’s elder brother Donald Kenneth Rotherham, born in Coundon in 1889, also joined the Royal Navy. He died in 1916 during WW1, and it is noteworthy that his name appears on Keresley’s War Memorial.

Eustace’s mother, Frances Elizabeth Rotherham, also came from an interesting family background. Her great-grandfather Thomas Eustace (1784-1823) was a colourful character with nautical tales to tell which may have inspired some of his descendants to join the Royal Navy. 

A book about his life at sea entitled Remarkable Providences was published in 1821 and told the story of how in 1809 he had been aboard the American merchant ship the Trial when it was shipwrecked off the coast of Long Island, North America. Thomas Eustace was one of only three crew members who had saved themselves by hanging on to the ropes and rigging for 17 hours. Rescued and taken to New York, he had to have all his fingers and both legs below the knee amputated.

 

Rev George James Eustace (1815-1882). Image credit: www.findagrave.com

His son, the Rev George James Eustace (1815-1882) had been a grocer’s apprentice in Somerset before becoming a Methodist preacher and minister at the Zion Independent Chapel in Nuneaton, finally deciding to join the Anglican Church of England and living with his wife Frances Eustace, née Mallabone, at Nuneaton.

 

Frances ‘Fanny’ Eustace, née Mallabone (1815-1868). She was the daughter of James Mallabone, a wealthy farmer and landowner from Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Image credit: www.findagrave.com

Two of their sons followed in their father’s footsteps, becoming Anglican vicars. One of them, the Rev George James Eustace (1840-1923), married Charlotte Mary Eustace, née Cartman and had seven children, one of whom was Eustace Rotherham’s mother, Frances Elizabeth.

 

Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth. Image credit: Colin Smith; Wikipedia

Eustace entered the Royal Navy on 15 September 1904 as a member of the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth, and is listed as a Midshipman on 15 May 1909. He clearly impressed in his studies, receiving the Beaufort Testimonial for 1912. This was an award instituted in 1860 for the naval officer who had achieved the best results in the exam for Navigation.

With the approach of WW1 he was rapidly promoted, ranked as a Lieutenant by February 1913. While Eustace seems to have no record of active wartime service, his brother also a Lieutenant, Donald Kenneth Rotherham, was serving on HMS Cadmus, a sloop, or lightly armed ship powered by sails. 

On 24 March 1916, while the ship was in dry dock in Hong Kong, he succumbed to what was described as ‘syncope following bronchitis’, dying while unconscious from a chronic cough. His name appears on the War Memorial in Keresley.

 

The only photo of Eustace Rotherham that I have located. Image credit: www.unithistories.com  

Further success came when he was top of his class in the exam to qualify for Gunnery Lieutenant, and he was awarded the Commander Egerton Prize for 1919. A steady rise through the ranks took him to Lieutenant Commander on 15 February 1921, and Commander on 30 June 1926.

He must also have found time for a social life. Around this time he had met Louisa Eleanor Hope Mansell (1894-1981), two years younger than him.  They were married at Winchester in Hampshire on 24 September 1925. Their son, Donald John Rotherham (1926-2005) was born at Portsmouth the following year.  A daughter, Eve Hope Rotherham (1929-1994) was born in Melbourne, Australia three years later.

 

British light cruiser HMS Calcutta at anchor in 1939. Image credit: Imperial War Museum; Wikipedia

On 30 June 1933 he was promoted to the rank of Captain. He took command of HMS Calcutta on 20 February the following year, having been lent to the Royal New Zealand Navy.

The ship was a C-class light cruiser, part of the Carlisle group of the C class of cruisers. She was laid down by Vickers Limited at Barrow-in-Furness in 1917 and launched on 9 July the following year.

Under Eustace’s command she set sail in March 1934 from Chatham Dockyard for the Far East, visiting various ports including Aden, Colombo, Singapore and Hong Kong. By 15 July she was back in the UK, and on 12 February 1935 was commissioned for a troopship voyage to China.  

The Calcutta post was followed on 16 May 1938 by a year’s appointment as Captain of Devonport Gunnery School, otherwise known as HMS Drake.  

 

HMS Hawkins at anchor. Image credit: Imperial War Museum; Wikipedia

Following the outbreak of WW2 he was appointed Captain of the heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins on 15 November 1939, a post which lasted until 6 May 1940.

Launched in 1919, the ship had been converted to a cadet training ship in 1938, but was reconverted to a heavy cruiser following the outbreak of war. Under Eustace’s command she reentered service in early 1940 and was assigned to the South Atlantic Division where she patrolled for enemy raiders of Allied merchant shipping and escorted convoys.  

 

Admiral Sir Henry Harwood, KCB, OBE, Commander in Chief, Mediterranean. 31 August 1942, Alexandria. Image credit: Wikipedia

Eustace was evidently a brilliant sailor, being described by Admiral Sir Henry Harwood, a hero of the Battle of the River Plate in WW2, as ‘a born ship handler’. However he was also plagued by ill-health, suffering from an acute shortness of breath in 1940, and while based at Simonstown, South Africa, he spent some time in hospital.  

Between 27 January 1941 and 21 June 1943 he was Naval Officer in Charge, Auckland and at HMS Royal Arthur, a second shore-based establishment located at Ingoldmells, near Skegness in Lincolnshire.

He was placed on the Retired List on 28 July 1942. He was declared medically unfit on 20 October 1945, and died two years later on 10 July 1947, having settled in Budleigh Salterton.

Hope Rotherham, also known as Mrs Eustace Rotherham. Image credit: www.findagrave.com

Hope Rotherham as she was known continued to lived at ‘Tahuna’ on Exmouth Road, one of the houses in Budleigh Salterton designed by William Hatchard-Smith.  Perhaps it was she who named the house after her husband’s New Zealand posting.

 

Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club in 1958. Image credit: Les Berry & Gerald Gosling, Budleigh Salterton and Raleigh Country, 1998

Under the name Mrs Eustace Rotherham she made a name for herself in croquet circles, being in 1960 one of only three women to have won the Open Championship. . She won the Women's Championship seven times between 1952 and 1969. 

As an administrator, she served on the Council of the Croquet Association from 1954 to 1981 and was a Vice-President from 1974 to 1981. She was remembered by my Budleigh friend Alan Tilbury as ‘a lovely lady full of vim & vigour’.  She died on 26 July 1981, aged 87.

The above photo delighted an American researcher, Florida-based Sam Williams, when I sent it to him in response to his request for material relating to Budleigh children’s author George Mills.

Back row (l-r); C.V. West (Groundsman), J.W. Solomon (London), Major G.F. Stone (Budleigh Salterton), R.F. Rothwell (L), A.J. Cooper (BS), J.G. Warwick (BS), W.P. Omerod [misspelt: should be Ormerod] (BS).

Middle row: J.A. Holliweg (L), Ian Baillieu (L), Miss E.J. Warwick (BS), Lt-Col G.E. Cave (BS), M.B. Reckitt (L).

Front row: Mrs W. Longman (L), W. Longman (L), Mrs E. Rotherham, capt. (BS), E.P.C. Cotter, capt. (L), Col D.W. Beamish (BS)

You can read about Sam’s research at www.whoisgeorgemills.com