HMS Amphion

The HMS Amphion was the first ship of the Royal Navy to be sunk in the First World War when, on 6th August 1914, she struck a mine in the North Sea, only 32 hours into the war.
Involved in a successful action to destroy a German ship laying mines east of the Suffolk coast, and having picked up German survivors, the Amphion was returning home when she tragically struck mines laid by the same German ship and sank after a series of damaging explosions
151 British lives were lost, together with those of 18 German prisoners.

Below are the stories of two Corsham soldiers who lost their lives on the Amphion that day.
The men of HMS Amphion are remembered on the Plymouth War Memorial, and a complete list of those on board can be found here.

William Arthur Carter

Private Royal Marine Light Infantry

William was born in 1882 to George and Marie Carter, the birth was registered in Chippenham but the family lived in Easton in Corsham. His father was a local man born in Corsham himself and he was a Cattleman on a local farm. By 1901 William, still living in Easton with his family, was working as a Freestone Quarryman. He had younger siblings – Alice, Maud, Henry and Florence. He married in 1903 to Florence Hayward and they soon had children; Hilda, Ivy and Allace.

In the 1911 census William was already in active service as a Royal Marine, his wife and children living with her parents still in Easton.

William, aged 32 and as a Private in the Royal Marine Light Infantry was onboard HMS Amphion when the ship was sunk, just two days after the start of the war.

Tragically, William's brother Frederic was also killed at sea, just two days before the end of the war when HMS Britannia was torpedoed by a German submarine on 9th November 1918. HMS Britannia was the last Royal Navy ship to be sunk in the war.

Frank Levi Fisher

(recorded as Lewin on the Corsham war memorial)

Born in Box in 1874 Frank lived initially in Box with his parents, Elijah and Elizabeth, together with 3 brothers and a sister. His father Elijah was a night watchman on the Railway. By 1891 they were living in Westwells in Corsham and Frank at age 17 was working as a Quarryman. Frank joined the Navy as a Stoker and was living in Plymouth when he married Lucretia Codd Brooking in 1899.

Census records show that he was in barracks in HMS Drake in Plymouth in 1901 and in 1911 he was serving as a leading stoker on HMS Mutine on Surveying Service in Australia.

Service records show that he was killed in action on 6th August 1914 as a Stoker Petty Officer onboard HMS Amphion.

Frank's father Elijah and second wife, Mary Charlotte Hayward, were still living in Westwells at the time of the war.