Able Seaman Edwin John Hopper

Born in 3 April 1886, Edwin was the son of Henry and Mary Hopper. The couple also had three older children – Alice, Henry and Minnie, plus a younger son, Frederick. Henry Hopper senior was a painter and decorator. In 1891 he and his family were living at Grace Villas, a line of terraced cottages on High Path in Merton, together with his widowed mother, Anne. By 1901, the family was living at 36, High Path, together with two of Edwin’s young cousins, Minnie and Rose Cawley. Edwin was still at school but his older brother, Henry, seems to have been working with his father as a painter.

We do not know much about Edwin’s schooldays but he may have been educated at Abbey Road Infants school, as this was close to the family home. The school leaving age was then 12 and Edwin seems to have worked as butcher’s assistant (possibly in a local shop), before joining the Royal Navy in 1903. At the time of his enlistment, he was described as 5 feet 6 inches tall with blue grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

Edwin initially served on a number of training bases but also had at least two years of service at sea on vessels such as H M S Vivid and H M S Caesar, as he was promoted to the rank of Able Seaman in 1905. By 1911 he was stationed at H M S Blake in Devonport. Following the outbreak of war, he served on a range of ships but from October 1914 to May 1918 he was a crew member of H M S Orion, a Dreadnought-class Battle Cruiser. The power-house of the contemporary British Navy, the Dreadnought was introduced in 1906 and played a key role in the naval battles of the First World War. Propelled by steam turbines, it was more manoeuvrable than earlier vessels and also more heavily armed. Orion was a “super-dreadnought” – the first ship to carry guns larger than 12 inches in calibre and also the first vessel to feature armaments mounted in a central line.

In May 1916, Edwin and the crew of Orion fought in the Battle of Jutland, one of the major naval offensives of the war. The ship carried the flag of Rear Admiral Leveson and reportedly helped to sink the German battlecruiser Lutzow. Although still part of the Grand Fleet, Orion did not take part in any other direct action and Edwin spent the remainder of the war on H M S Vivid and H M S Gibraltar. During the post-war era he spent time on training bases such as H M S Impregnable, based at Devonport.

It is a bitter irony, that having survived one of the most deadly naval battles of the war, Edwin was accidentally drowned whilst in harbour at Devonport – no details of how this accident occurred can be found. At the time of his death, his next of kin was listed as Mrs. E King of 1, Trafalgar Terrace, Abbey Road, Merton – possibly one of his sisters.

Edwin was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Merton Park.