Chief Artificer Engineer James Anderson

Chief Artificer Engineer James Anderson, Royal Navy. He was killed aboard H.M.S. “Viking” on 29th January 1916, aged 49. He was the husband of Margaret Anderson of Town Farm, Tweedmouth, Berwick and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. He was killed by the ship hitting a mine off Boulogne whilst convoying troops to France. H.M.S.”Viking” was a Tribal Class Destroyer of 1200 tons and built at Jarrow being launched in 1909. She was part of the 6th Destroyer Flottilla and was the only destroyer to have six funnels.  When the ship struck the mine damage was not great but there were 10 casualties mostly in the engine room. He was a Regular and had been awarded the Medal and Clasp for active service in West Africa in 1899 and had been on H.M.S. ” Decoy ” a torpedoboat destroyer when she was rammed and sunk in an accident with H.M.S. “Arun ” In 1903 He was the son of Mark Anderson of Burnmouth who died in the fishing disaster of 1881 in which a great storm had overwhelmed the Eyemouth fleet. He served his time with Mr Black of Tweedmouth and joined the Royal Navy as a young man. When war broke out he was stationed at China and took part in the search for enemy raiders especially the cruiser ” Emden ” It was his boat which picked up the wireless signal whilst near the Cocos and Keeling Islands which led to her destruction by H.M.S. “Sydney”. Later he was transferred to special duty on the Belgian coast serving aboard a Monitor  before being appointed to the ” Viking “.