On the Chatham Naval Memorial is the name of Surgeon William Mellis Mearns, serving on H.M.S. Formidable with the Royal Navy who died 01/01/1915.

William Mellis Mearns was born in Gateshead on the 7th December 1884, the eldest son of William Mearns, of Berwick Road, Gateshead. M.A., M.D., V.D., J.P., late Lieutenant-Colonel R.A.M.C. (T.F.), now attached to the Royal Engineers., with his wife, daughter of John Mellis, Surgeon.

William was educated at the Aldenham School, Elstree, Hertfordshire, and Aberdeen University. He matriculated in Medicine 1902 and became a M.B., Ch. B., in 1908.

As a student Mearns served in the University [Aberdeen] Volunteer Company. He received a Commission as a Surgeon in the Royal Navy, 6th November 1908, served on H.M.S. Pembroke 1909, Action 1909-10, ‘Redbreast’ in the Persian Gulf 1910-11, then back to H.M.S. Pembroke in 1911. Then in the ‘Teal’ on the Upper Yangtze River, in China, 1911-14. He was only home for 10 days when the Great War broke out.

He was appointed Medical Officer to HMS Formidable on the 1st August 1914 and served with the then Home Fleet.

The official record of his death runs: “On 1st January 1915 this ship was torpedoed by a German U Boat U-24, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Rudolf Schneider, by when going down the Channel, and unfortunately this most promising officer lost his life. His reports show that he was an officer of high attainments.”

He was unmarried

Source: De Ruvigny Roll of Honour

William Mellis Mearns is remembered at Gateshead in G39.004 page 1 and  G39.051 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.