Samuel became a plumber’s apprentice for a munitions factory, but joined the Royal Navy on 12 January 1916, two days after his 18th birthday. He was given service number Z/2878 and described as 5 feet 4 inches tall with dark hair, grey eyes, and a vertical scar under his left eye.
He joined the Royal Naval Division, which was essentially an infantry division fighting on land in France. Samuel was notionally attached to the 5th Battalion but instead was very quickly selected for sea service. After some brief training he joined the crew of HMS Attentive II in April 1916, which was a depot for auxiliary small craft such as tugs and tenders, before moving on to HMS Attentive III for a short spell in January 1917, which was the armed patrol depot ship at Dover.
Samuel got a much more interesting assignment when he joined the crew of the brand-new C-class light cruiser HMS Caradoc in June 1917, which was assigned to the 6th Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. There was a minor mishap when the ship ran aground on Fair Isle in August, but it was soon re-floated.
Caradoc participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight on 17 November, successfully intercepting German forces clearing British minefields in the North Sea. Being the rear ship in her squadron, Caradoc fired the least and did not score any hits. By November 1918, the ship was based at Rosyth and escorted the German High Seas Fleet as they sailed to Scapa Flow on 21 November to be interned.
Service in the Baltic
A few days later, the Squadron was ordered to the Baltic Sea to support the Baltic states as they attempted to secure their independence from Russia. While stopped en route at Copenhagen, Caradoc pulled the collier SS Tregarth afloat after it had run aground.
On 14 December alongside half-sister Cardiff and five destroyers, Caradoc bombarded Bolshevik positions east of Reval (Tallinn), Estonia, and brought the Russian offensive to a halt by destroying the one bridge connecting them with Petrograd. Almost two weeks later, the ship helped to capture the Russian destroyer Avtroil near Reval on 27 December, which was later turned over to the Estonians.
At the beginning of January 1919, Caradoc and her sister Calypso ferried 500 Finnish volunteers from Helsinki to Reval and then bombarded the Bolsheviks in conjunction with an Estonian offensive on 4 January. The Squadron was recalled immediately afterwards and arrived back in Rosyth on 10 January. It is likely that Samuel departed at this point and was demobilised in February 1919.
Ships
- 5th Battalion, Royal Naval Division (1916)
- HMS Attentive II (1916)
- HMS Attentive III (1917)
- HMS Caradoc (1917-1919)
Medals
See also
