Poole Museum

Edwin Cutler died onboard HMS Bulwark, aged 28 years. In 1911 he was living Lagland Street with parents Frederick and Mary Ann and (twin) brother William James. His occupation was Electric Motor Attendant. A Edwin Frederick Cutler, an electrician aged 27 married Lilian Frances Wheadon at St Mary"s Longfleet on Christmas Day 1913. Service Number J/22096

Lagland Street, Poole

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HMS Bulwark was one of five London class pre-dreadnaught battleships built for the Royal Navy at the end of the 19th century. On 26 November 1914 she was destroyed by a large internal explosion with the loss of 741 men; only a dozen men survived the detonation. It was probably caused by the overheating of cordite charges that had been placed adjacent to a boiler-room bulkhead. Little of the ship survived to be salvaged and her remains were designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.

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On 26 November 1914 HMS Bulwark sank on the River Medway estuary off Sheerness. A memorial to those lost was erected at the Dockyard Church, Sheerness, in 1921. Victims are also commemorated on the Naval War Memorial at Southsea. Another memorial was placed in Woodlands Road Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent, as part of the Naval Burial Ground.

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