On Tower Hill Memorial, London is the name of Pilot’s Assistant Ralph Phillips serving on Pilot Cutter Protector serving with the Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities who died 31/12/1916.
In Tynemouth (Preston) Cemetery is the family headstone which reads:-
In
Loving
Memory
of
Jane Ellen Phillips
Beloved wife of Ralph
1870 – 1952
also their daughter
Elvera Phillips
1904 1910
and their son
Ralph Phillips
1895 – 1916
Lost through enemy action
Anthony Smith
brother of Ellen Phillis
1889 – 1941
and their sister
Ethel Westercaard
Mother of Daisy
1883 – 1952
Ralph Phillips
Tyne Pilot
1870 – 1962
Dearly Beloved Husband of
Jane Ellen
The Lord is my Shepherd.
Ralph was the son of Ralph Phillips and Jane Ellen nee Smith of 14 East George Street, North Shields. Married 1893 Tynemouth District .
Grandson of Sydney & Sarah Alice Smith and Robert & Elizabeth Phillips.
Ralph was born on the 11th April 1896, at 3 Beacon Street, North Shields, Northumberland. Sibling of Lily, William Sydney, Jane Ellen, Elvera and Sarah Alice Phillips.
1st Christ Church Scout Troop, Ralph Phillips was sworn In on the 27th April 1909, left 22nd November 1911, served 2 years 7 months. Rank on leaving Second.
On New Year’s Eve, 31st December 1916, the Tyne pilot cutter Protector was destroyed by a German mine at the mouth of the River Tyne, killing all 19 men on board. The 200-ton steamer was serving the port of Tyne, guiding vessels through hazardous, mined waters during WWI. The loss was a devastating blow to the tight-knit Tyneside maritime community, leaving 33 children fatherless.
The Protector was waiting to transfer pilots to ships entering the Tyne when it hit a mine, likely laid by German submarine UC-31, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto von Schrader.
All 19 men on board perished, including 10 pilots, four pilot assistants, and five crew members.
The crew was mostly from North and South Shields. Victims included 70-year-old pilot Robert Phillips and his grandson Ralph Phillips, representing the interlinked nature of the families involved. The youngest was 16-year-old cabin boy Benjamin Rumney.
Aftermath: The explosion was so severe that only one body, that of Robert Phillips, was ever recovered, found in March 1917.
Ralph was awarded the Mercantile Marine Medal.
Sources; James Hoy Archive; Northumbrian WW1 Project; Bill Watson 2012; BBC; British Newspaper Archive; The Pilots Log: Find A Grave; BBC
“There was a noise as if it was a volcano and all they saw was a column of water and smoke and the pilot cutter was no more,” says Bill Watson, whose uncle Ralph Phillips and great-grandfather Robert Phillips were on board.
Sources; James Hoy Archive; Northumbrian WW1 Project; Bill Watson 2012; BBC; British Newspaper Archive; The Pilots Log: Find A Grave; BBC
Ralph Phillips is remembered at South Shields on S86.030, S86.062 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.
