Rank: Able Seaman
Ship: HMS Hogue
Parents: Mr William Foord & Mrs Esther Beaney
Wife: Mrs Mary Jane Beaney
Brother: Charles Arthur Beaney
Address: 154 Hollington Old Lane, Hollington
Parent’s Address: 57 Norman Road, St Leonards
Other Info: An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on 31st October 1914 reports “The sad news has been received that Mr Charles Arthur Beaney, of 57 Norman Road, St Leonards, was killed on the ‘Falcon’ destroyer, during the recent bombardment of German forces by our Fleet. Mr Beaney was a single man, aged 38, and was a Petty Officer. What makes his death more distressing is that quite recently a married brother, a Postman between Battle and Westfield, was lost on the ‘Hogue’.
HMS Hogue was sunk along with her sister ships HMS Aboukir and HMS Cressy, by German submarine U-9 on 22nd September 1914. Albert was one of 1,459 seamen lost on that day.
According to CWGC, Albert died aged 35 and is remembered at Chatham Naval Memorial on Panel 2.
Published: October 1914
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Albert Edward Beaney was born in St Leonards on Sea, Sussex on the 17 May 1879. In the 1881 census his family was living at 15 Shepherd Street, St Leonards. His father William Ford Beaney was a whitesmith. In the 1891 census they were living at nearby 15 Mercatoria. The father died in 1898, and in the 1901 census the family were at nearby 57 Norman Road, where mother Esther was a dressmaker, living with four children: two dressmakers, a cook, and a clerk. In the 1911 census they were again at 57 Norman Road, with Albert a postman.
As of 3 Western Avenue, Battle, he married on the 25 March 1912, St Leonard’s church, St Leonards on Sea, Mary Jane Poole, widow, of 94 Marina. She was the daughter of James Scott, farm labourer, and the widow of George James Poole, bricklayer, who she had married in 1906 at St Matthew's church, Silverhill, St Leonards. Pensions at Albert's death went to his widow and also their children Esther Frances and Charles William, as well as a seven-year-old daughter by her first husband, Edith Annie Kennell Poole Beaney.
In the 1901 census he was an able seaman in the Royal Navy, so he had left the navy and, as a member of the Royal Fleet Reserve, was recalled at the beginning of World War I,
The action in which Albert died on the cruiser HMS Hogue was off the Belgian coast on the 22 September 1914, in an action when two other old cruisers, Aboukir and Cressy, were sunk by the same U-boat, U-9. Hogue was hit by two torpedoes and, as her watertight doors were open, she capsized within ten minutes. In all, the combined total from all three ships was 837 men rescued, and 62 officers and 1,397 ratings lost. Hogue alone lost 377 men. His body was not recovered but is remembered in the Church in the Wood cemetery, Hollington, St Leonards on Sea.
His widow Mary Jane was living at 6 Chapel Cottages, Battle, at the time. In the 1921 census, her occupation being “home duties” she was living in 4-roomed 154 Hollington Old Lane. As of 327 Battle Road, Hollington, she died in 1951 and is buried in the Church in the Wood cemetery.
His brother Charles Arthur was a Stoker Petty Officer on HMS Powerful, a cruiser which was the flagship on the Australia station. He died only a few weeks after his brother. “Lives of the First World War 1914-1918” on the Find My Past database states, in Charles’ entry: “On 28 October 1914, while on anti-submarine patrol off the Belgian coast with HMS Syren she [the destroyer HMS Falcon] came under heavy accurate artillery fire from the Westende battery. She remained on station and returned fire until hit by an 8-inch shell which killed 8 personnel including her commanding officer.”
Mother Esther was listed as a voter on the 1918 electoral roll for that address, the first time she was allowed to vote. In the 1921 census she was at that 6-roomed house, aged 81, performing home duties, as was her daughter; they had four visitors as well.