On Portsmouth Naval Memorial is the name of M/4285 Engine Room Artificer 4th Class Edward Wilson Brown, serving on H.M.S. Ghurka with the Royal Navy who died 08/02/1917.

Acknowledgments Barney Rice

Edward Wilson Brown joined the Navy in July 1915, and was killed at sea when his ship HMS Gurkha was mined in February 1917. He was prior to the war was employed as a boilermaker at Brigham and Cowans, and resided at 19 Bath Street, South Shields.

HMS Ghurka was sunk on the 8th February 1917 after hitting a German mine off Dungeness. Only five of the crew survived with 74 killed. The wreck is located at a depth of 30 metres at 5051′20″N 053′17″E Coordinates: 5051′20″N 053′17″E[25] (off Dungeness). It is designated as a “protected place” under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.

Edward Wilson Brown is remembered at South Shields in S86.004 page 5, at North Shields in N34.40 page 5 and N34.61 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.