Lynsted's extraordinary tales from the Great War

This story begins with a family of harness-makers in Greenstreet, in what became 118 London Road, Lynsted, and ends at sea with an encounter with U-35 in the Mediterranean.Ernest Cecil Kemp was the eldest son and apprentice saddle-maker in the subterranean workshop of his father, William Ernest Kemp. But the life of his father did not appeal to Ernest as much as that of his uncle, Victor, a pensioned-off chief stoker who still lived in Greenstreet. Fresh-faced, five foot seven inches tall and narrow-chested, at 15 years old, he joined the Royal Navy as a boy seaman for training at HMS Ganges in Shotley, Suffolk. It seems navy life suited him  by 1914 his chest measured 40 and a half inches.In that year he was an Ordinary Seaman and was quickly promoted to Able Seaman, ready to travel the world. After training, Ernest moved to Chatham naval base before being posted to the protected cruiser, HMS Essex on its way to the West Indies. His family received several postcards which included views of the American naval bombardment of Vera Cruz and the damaged buildings.

Returning to Chatham in 1915 he was soon to find himself in the thick of it when he was sent to HMS Egremont, the naval base at Valletta, Malta.On January 4 1916, Ernest was assigned to HMS Primula, a mine-sweeping sloop of 1250 Gross Registered Tonnage, a thoroughly modern ship built by Swan Hunter ,carrying two four inch guns.Only two months later, on March 1, steaming south of Cape Matapan, near Cerigo island, HMS Primula came up against the German submarine U-35 commanded by the highly successful and decorated Captain Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere, to this day the most successful submarine commander in history. Two of the four torpedos found their mark with the loss of three ratings and 107 survivors.His inspirational uncle, Victor Edward Kemp, who had been pensioned off in 1907, returned to active duty in 1915 and survived the war to return to live in Greenstreet.This story was shared with the Lynsted with Kingsdown Society by David Aggersberg who researched this family member and has given many more images from his family's experience of the two world wars.