The Marriage Certificate (22 page)

After lunch with his wife, Peter made his way to Leyton’s local
library. He was directed to the local history section and was delighted to
learn that the library had physical copies of the Leyton Chronicle for July
1996.

He recalled from Harry Williams’ death certificate that
Harry had died on or about 1 July, but his death had not been registered until
three weeks later. Having spoken to the old man in Stephenson Street, Peter
assumed that Harry’s death was a big local story and when he looked at the
front page of the edition for the 19 July 1996, his assumption proved to be
correct.

‘Man’s Decomposing Body Found in House’ proclaimed the
headline. The story was placed alongside a photograph of 59 Stephenson Street,
looking extremely untidy and dilapidated. Peter scanned the details:

The partially decomposed body of
95-year-old bachelor, Harry Williams, was found yesterday at his home in Falcon
Village. The alarm was raised by local milkman, Barry Purton, who asked a
neighbour to phone the police. Two constables forced entry and discovered the
body of Mr Williams in the rear sitting room. He appeared to have been dead for
some time. The house in Stephenson Street has been sealed off, pending
investigations, although the police stated that foul play was not suspected. It
is understood that Mr Williams may have been dead for several weeks. Neighbours
were said to be shocked.

Enquiries by the Chronicle have
revealed that Mr Williams was a very private man, who kept himself to himself.
He was a late-night customer at the local corner shop and was seldom seen out
during the daytime. Some neighbours had never seen him and one said he was
known as a recluse. Another neighbour even assumed the house was unoccupied.

Little is known about Mr
Williams. He retired from the Falcon Foundry in the 1960s. It appears that he
wasn’t married and was not thought to have any relatives in the area. One
neighbour told the Chronicle that she had always believed his family’s roots
were in Kidwelly in South Wales. Another confirmed that there was a connection
with South Wales.

A post-mortem has been ordered
by the coroner, although it is thought unlikely that an inquest will be
required. Police are continuing their enquiries and attempts to trace
relatives.

Peter went on to read the remainder of the report. Various
neighbours were quoted on what they knew or recalled of Harry Williams, which
was very little. The report finished by criticising the social services for
abandoning Mr Williams and raised the question of how such a sad and lonely
death could have occurred.

Peter brought Felicity up to date on the journey home. ‘You
were absolutely right about Harry’s house being in a dreadful state. There was
a photo of it from 1996. It looked awful, totally different to what I saw this
morning. The old man told me that a builder had bought it and had renovated it.
He did an amazing job, which would explain the big increase in value when it
was resold in 2001. Apparently, the milkman alerted the police. The paper said
that the police were trying to trace relatives. The neighbours thought that
Harry’s family came from Kidwelly in South Wales, but that’s a complete red
herring.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Because in 1900, John Williams was on a crew list, as chief
engineer of the
RMS Kidwelly Castle
. That’s where the Kidwelly link
comes from. The neighbours must have got their facts confused, which sent the
police and any previous heir hunters on a wild goose chase to research the
thousands of Williams’ in South Wales! Obviously they got nowhere and the local
council had to sort out his cremation.’

‘So if the police couldn’t find the right Williams family,
how do
you
expect to get any further?’

‘I’m not sure, but I’m not ready to quit yet. I know from
the 1891 Census that John Williams came from the Isle of Wight. What is
worrying me though is why a London firm should send someone round to Stephenson
Street now, trying to trace relatives? I need to find out who they are.’

As soon as they got home, Peter went upstairs to his
computer, while Felicity started to prepare a meal. He quickly identified which
company the investigator in Stephenson Street worked for. It was Highborn
Research, not High Holborn Research. Highborn were based in central London and
were well established in the field of tracing heirs to unclaimed wills. He was
a little daunted when he read about them on their website. They were big
professional players. By taking them on, he as an amateur with limited
experience and resources was pitting himself against one of the heavyweights of
the industry.

Perhaps, he should just drop the whole thing, Peter thought.
Obviously, he would have no chance in a race to find an heir against the likes
of Highborn Research, but they didn’t know that they had competition from him
on the case; even if he was small fry. What puzzled him though was why they
were investigating now? The estate had been listed as unclaimed since 2002 and
no heir had been found. Had they obtained a new lead or was it just coincidence?

Peter toyed with the idea of abandoning it, but something
nagged at him to continue.
Happenstance
, he mused.
Isn’t that what
they call it? That chance occurrence, when either through luck, fate or
whatever, things come together
. What made him, an amateur genealogist, spot
the marriage certificate in the first place? Furthermore, what subconscious
force or motivation prompted him to buy it? He couldn’t really explain it,
other than the idea that it might be interesting to do some research on the
certificate.
Look where it has taken me so far
, he thought excitedly,
to
an unclaimed estate; to a mystery
.

Surely, he must continue, he reasoned. Something was pulling
him along and he wasn’t going to let go until it released him. He would carry
on, but with the proviso of checking the Treasury Solicitor’s list regularly.
If Harry Williams’ name disappeared from it, Peter would give up.

An alarm bell rang throughout
HMS Kidwelly Castle
calling
the crew to action stations. The ship was on patrol off the West African coast,
south of Cape Verde. Her orders were to intercept enemy shipping and keep an
eye out for the German warship named
Karlsruhe
.

Light was fading and a sailing ship had been sighted.
HMS
Kidwelly Castle
was gaining quickly, speed set to full ahead. There was
just enough time before dark to close with the unknown vessel and board her if
necessary.

The vessel turned out to be German: a three-masted barque
with a crew of fifteen. She hove to without a fight, for she was no match for
the
Kidwelly Castle
. She was boarded and the enemy vessel was taken as a
prize. She was carrying three hundred tons of coal, along with stores and
equipment. Although her master remained silent, there was little doubt that her
cargo was intended for the
Karlsruhe
.

Escorted by the
Kidwelly Castle
, the captured vessel
and crew were taken to Freetown in Sierra Leone to be handed over to the
British representative.

During a short stopover there, they received new orders from
the Admiralty and they departed for Cape Town with all haste. On the other side
of Africa in the Indian Ocean, the Admiralty had learned of a German raider,
the
SMS Salzenburg
, causing havoc to British shipping.

She was the guard ship for the German port of Dar es Salaam
in German East Africa and had left port on 29 July, just prior to the outbreak
of the war. Well-armed and fully fuelled, she had steamed north, sinking a
British merchant ship called
City of Canterbury
on 6 August. It took a
couple of weeks for the British authorities to learn of the loss. As soon as
they did, they mobilised a number of ships to take part in the hunt for the
Salzenburg
.
HMS Kidwelly Castle
was assigned to that force.

She covered the distance to Cape Town in just over nine
days. As she entered Table Bay, she exchanged signals with the shore
authorities and refuelling and provisioning commenced as soon as she anchored.
Again, the stopover was short and the crew had no opportunity to leave the
ship. The mail they’d hoped to post at St Helena was taken ashore. John Williams
sat on deck in the sunshine, chatting to George Corbett, as the loading
derricks swung in nets full of stores and equipment. Meanwhile, a conveyor
brought up coal from a barge moored alongside, delivering it directly into the
ship’s bunkers. Within a few hours, they were ready to return to sea, but on
this occasion, the course would be a different one for John Williams. Rather
than returning straight to England, this time the ship would first take him
eastwards around the Cape of Good Hope, before turning northwards into the
Indian Ocean, to join the hunt for the
Salzenburg
.

On 20 September, the German raider appeared off the coast of
Zanzibar. Her captain had been tipped off that a Royal Naval vessel was
immobile, undergoing boiler repairs. The British ship was soon located and
sunk, having fallen easy prey.

News of the attack filtered through to Royal Naval Command.
HMS
Kidwelly Castle
was sent to help patrol the Mozambique Channel, a sail of
two days. She set course immediately. Meanwhile, the crew continued to carry
out practice firing and battle drill. The plan was to rendezvous with two other
Royal Navy warships. However,
HMS Kidwelly Castle
was alone when she
first sighted the
Salzenburg
on the morning of 22 September. Both
vessels spotted each other simultaneously and set themselves on a converging
course. Their crews went to action stations.

The German warship was slightly smaller than the
Kidwelly
Castle
, but much faster, being capable of twenty-three knots. She was more
manoeuvrable too and could make a tighter turn. She had armour-plating and was
equipped with a formidable array of heavy armament, as well as two submerged
torpedo tubes. She out-gunned the
Kidwelly Castle
by a ratio of four to
one.

The ships opened fire on each other as soon as they
considered they were in range. Shells howled past the twin funnels of the
Kidwelly
Castle
. In the heat of the engine room, the stokers were stripped to the
waist. The bridge had called for full speed and they were trying to extract
every last drop of power. John Williams monitored the pressure gauges and
dials. He shouted orders and encouragement when needed. He was pleased. They
had managed to squeeze a little extra power and judging by the revolutions
counter, the ship was achieving nearly eighteen knots.

The
Salzenburg
drew first blood, striking the corner
of the bridge on the
Kidwelly Castle
. The shell killed a machine gunner
instantly. As the distance between the two vessels closed, the
Kidwelly
Castle
landed several hits on the German ship, but they glanced harmlessly
off her armour plating. The two vessels passed each other at full speed with a
gap between them of less than fifty yards, close enough for the crews to see
each other clearly. They fired furiously across the narrow stretch of water separating
them. Then
HMS Kidwelly’s
rear guns came into play. It was her rear
gunners’ chance to inflict some damage before she was hit again.

It may have been a lucky shot, but one of the
Kidwelly’s
shells struck the
Salzenburg
in the stern, just above the rudder. The
force of the explosion jammed the rudder hard to one side and immediately made
the
Salzenburg
turn to starboard. For
HMS Kidwelly
this was just
what the crew had hoped for. If the German ship was disabled, then there was a
good chance of finishing her off.

The
Kidwelly’s
Captain ordered a turn to port of 180
degrees, but here he made a fatal mistake. He was unaware that the German ship
was armed with torpedoes. When the
Salzenburg
had almost completed her
involuntary about turn, the German Captain ordered the launching of two
torpedoes from her underwater tubes. It was a wild and desperate act. As the
Kidwelly
Castle
made her turn, intent upon another attack, she presented herself
broadside to the approaching torpedoes. The first one passed her bow, missing
by a hair’s breadth, but the second one hit
HMS Kidwelly Castle
below
the waterline, in the area of the engine room. There was an enormous explosion
and those in the engine room stood no chance. She shuddered, came to a
standstill and started to list, all power gone and taking in water rapidly. Her
Captain gave the order to abandon ship and the crew threw out lifebuoys and
lowered two lifeboats.

The ships were stationary about one mile apart. The German
crew cheered as they saw the
Kidwelly Castle
heel on to her side. They
watched her survivors jump from her upturned hull, in the hope of reaching a
lifeboat. Then her stern rose in the air, the White Ensign still plainly
visible, and with a hissing of steam and a tremendous blast of air she slid below
the surface forever. From the moment of impact by the torpedo, to the last
sight of her White Ensign, no more than twelve minutes had elapsed. Of her full
complement of twenty-four officers and ratings, ten were lost, presumed
drowned. The Captain was amongst the missing, but John’s friend, Paymaster
George Corbett, survived.

Meanwhile, the German Captain ordered a damage assessment.
The rudder was jammed and distorted, but the crew was already cutting part of
it away, so that it could swing free. They were confident they could repair the
steering mechanism to give some measure of control.

By then, it was midday and the sun was hot. The German
sailors worked frantically, fearful that their position made them vulnerable to
attack by other British warships. It took them two hours to make a temporary
repair. During that time, both lifeboats were rowed across to the
Salzenburg
and the British survivors asked to be rescued. The German captain refused to
allow them aboard. He was desperate to get away from the scene, as soon as
possible. He ordered his crew to throw down some water canisters and canvass
sheeting to the survivors. Leaving them to fend for themselves, he set a
westerly course for the African coast, which was about fifty miles away.

As the German ship disappeared over the horizon, those in
the lifeboats shared out the water and got beneath the canvas to protect
themselves from the sun. Fortunately, early the following morning, the two
Royal Navy warships with which
HMS Kidwelly
Castle
had been scheduled
to rendezvous, spotted the survivors and took them on board.