Source 3 - Return to Britain - A Short Life in the Sky

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Source 3 - Hearing the news, 14 December 1916

Douglas’s father, Rev David Hume, went south to attend the funeral. He wrote a long letter to his wife describing their son’s burial, the procession and full honours given by the Navy.

He stayed on in Kent to find out more details about the circumstances of Douglas’s death to pass on to the family. Someone had made a final entry in Douglas’s diary on the day he died that read, 'Douglas was shot down from steamer (probably Swedish), one of three, near the "Tongue" Lightship, mouth of the Thames. His watch stopped 11.13 am. Wireless man also killed.'

Image

John Douglas Hume's grave
NAS: GD486/194

Transcript

57 Netherhall Gardens,
London,
14 December 1916

My Dearest

I am writing to you with our own dear boy’s own fountain pen… Douglas is buried in Eastminster Cemetery in the part belonging to the Navy alongside other Lieutenants and officers who have lost their lives quite recently.

… When I arrived at Chatham on Tuesday to interview the Divisional Commander… I was about an hour there and had read to me… extracts from the Admiralty Court of Inquiry, which deals with all accidents. It was then that I first learned that Douglas was accidentally killed. Gradually facts trickled out and I began to understand but it was not till I met at the funeral some of his Brother officers from Westgate that I could piece most of the story together. Even yet there are many things I want to know and I am going to stay on for a few days, and on one of them… I shall go to Westgate and see the men who knew him…

Your loving David

NAS: GD486/150