Stoker 1st Class Hugh Brough

Stoker 1st Class Hugh Brough, Royal Navy. He was lost at sea aboard H.M.S.” Good Hope ” on 1st November 1914 during the Battle of Coronel and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. The Ship was a” Drake” Class armoured cruiser of 14,150 tons with a crew of 900 and was launched at Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering , Govan in 1902. In August 1914 on the declaration of War she became the Flagship of Rear Admiral Christopher Craddock and was sent with other ships of the 4th Cruiser Squadron to South America to search for German commerce raiders. He was then sent further south to block any attempt of the German East Asia Squadron under Admiral Von Spee in their efforts to break into the South Atlantic. They met at Coronel off Chile on 1st November where the powerful enemy fleet outnumbered and outgunned Craddock’s force. The ” Good Hope ” and her sister ship ” Monmouth ” were both sunk with all hands. There was a pre dreadnought battleship ” H. M.S. Canopus with the squadron and this could have tipped the balance but she was far astern with boiler trouble and Craddock would not wait for her. The German ships in their turn were destroyed by Sir Doveton Sturdee’s force on 8th December 1914 at the Battle of the Falklands.