Ernest Gidley 1878 - 1917

Ernest Gidley was the second oldest of the Gidley men to die, being aged 38. He was one of the three naval casualties, all the others being soldiers. He was a Petty Officer Stoker on the destroyer HMS Pheasant when it was sunk by a mine off the Orkneys on March 1, 1917.
Ernest was born on Sep 19, 1878 (although his naval record says 1881), the youngest child of John Gidley, a sawyer of Buckfastleigh, and his wife Elizabeth, nee Baker. Dean Prior and Buckfastleigh are close together, there was a lot of movement between them over the years, and Ernest's family's ancestors are actually the Dean Prior branch of the Gidleys, not the Buckfastleigh branch.
At the age of 13 he was already a yarn presser,contributing to the family income, and it seems he may have accompanied two of his older brothers to Lawrence, Massachusetts at some point. They emigrated there to work in the textile mills. Ernest certainly travelled there in 1897, when his occupation was given as a lamp maker. But in 1904 he signed on for 12 years in the Royal Navy and by 1911 he was a Leading Stoker, serving bases in Singapore and Hong Kong (the China Station), on HMS Monmouth, and on depot and training ships at Plymouth. He married Thirza Jane Barnes in 1908 and their only child Cecil Gidley was born in Buckfastleigh, Devon, later that year. Cecil was the father of Brian Gidley, the actor and singer, who emigrated to New Zealand.
In January 1917 Ernest boarded HMS Pheasant, a destroyer. It was sunk with the loss of all hands when it hit a mine off the Orkneys.
From the Scapa Flow landscape website I found the following:
"On the 1st of March 1917 she had sailed to conduct the `Hoy Patrol’ a local patrol around Hoy. During the week she lay at anchor in the Flow at night and patrolled outside Hoy Sound by day. She was ordered to send a weather report at 5.30am as the commodore of Destroyers planned to hold gunnery practice for his ships. She was seen by the Signal Station at Stromness at 5.30am and at 06.10 am a loud explosion was heard. Men on two trawlers anchored inshore heard the explosion and from one of the trawlers they could see black smoke.
One of the trawlers (the Grouse) immediately set out in the direction of the smoke but found nothing. The ship had disappeared. Later that morning a group of minesweeping trawlers discovered a patch of oil and wreckage and the body of midshipman Cotter was found wearing two lifebelts. At least 88 men had been on board but his was the only body recovered. He is buried in the Lyness Naval Cemetery.
It was assumed that the ship had struck a mine, possibly one that had broken loose from the Whiten Bank field (a British defense) which was laid in the winter of 1915-16. Another suggestion is that she was sunk by UC-43 – a submarine minelayer. It is known that this submarine sailed on the 25th of February and she was sunk by HM Submarine G-13 off Shetland on the 10th of March."
In 1996 the wreck of HMS Pheasant was discovered.
Ernest is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.
His parents, John and Elizabeth Gidley, both died in the December quarter of 1918. In a horrible co-incidence, another son, Samuel, one of the brothers who emigrated to Lawrence, Mass., also met his death by drowning, but in an accident whilst on holiday at Salisbury Beach in 1911.