Leading Seaman Isaac Fulcher

Isaac Fulcher was born on 11 January, 1892 in Portsmouth to Isaac (Sr) and Harriett Fulcher. He had an older sister, Harriett, but was the oldest son, with siblings Clifford, Frederick, Frank, and Dorothy all younger than him (there was a six year gap between Isaac and Clifford, and about an 8 year gap between Clifford and Frederick, so his youngest sister was about 19 years younger than him). In 1901, he lived with his mother and siblings at 35 Winchester Road, Portsmouth (his father was in the Royal Navy, so he was presumably at sea at the time of the census).

Isaac followed in his father’s footsteps by enlisting in the Royal Navy when he was 15, and was thus living at 4 Sophia Place, Park Road, Portsmouth with his uncle (who was in the police fire brigade) and family in 1911. By now, his father had retired from the Navy and moved the rest of the family to 7 Bronson Road, Raynes Park.

He married Greta Cross in January 1912, in Portsmouth. He had brown hair and eyes, and was 5’6”. He served on quite a few different ships from 1907 onwards, including the Ganges, Victory, and Excellent, but was ultimately killed on the HMS Louvain, which was torpedoed by a U-Boat in the Aegean Sea. HMS Louvain started off as the SS Dresden, constructed in 1897 at Earle's Co. Ltd in Hull, weighing 1,805 tons. Owned by Great Western Railway Co, she was a ferry boat on the Harwich, England to Antwerp, Belgium route. The Dresden was taken over by Admiralty as an Armed Boarding Steamer and renamed Louvain in 1915. She was sunk by the German submarine UC22 on the 20th January 1918, in the Aegean Sea. There were about 228 men on board at the time of the sinking, with only about 16 Survivors.

At the time of his death Isaac’s widow Greta Amy Fulcher was living at 25 Oak Avenue, White Hart Lane, Tottenham.

Isaac’s body was not recovered. He is remembered on the Portsmouth naval memorial and on a stone cross at the east end of St. Saviours Church, Raynes Park next to Grand Drive