Boy 1 Wilfred William ROSENDALE

Royal Navy

Wilfred William Rosendale was born on 24 January 1900 at Deptford in London, a son of Herbert and Alice Rosendale. A factory hand, he joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 23 July 1915.  After training at HMS Powerful he was rated Boy 1st Class in January 1916.

He joined the crew of the battlecruiser HMS Invincible on 1 February 1916.

At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, HMS Invincible was lost after a hit on ‘Q’ turret spread to the magazine and it exploded.  1,026 of her crew were killed and there were only five survivors.

Boy Rosendale, aged 16, was one of those killed and he is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.  His Royal Navy record of service gives his name as 'William Wilfred' Rosendale, however his birth certificate, census entries and his memorial plaque all record his actual name as Wilfred William Rosendale.

 

Geoff Smith