Leonard Arthur Spinks

Born: 3 November 1891

Died: 11 November 1917

Rank and Regiment: Stoker 1st Class K5939 in the Royal Navy

Resting Place: body unrecovered

Memorial: All Saints Runhall, United Kingdom and; Royal Navy Memorial, Portsmouth, United Kingdom.

He was born on 3 November 1891, the son of Thomas Spinks and Anna Elizabeth (nee Wade). According to the admission register of Runhall
School, which he joined on 4 October 1895, his date of birth was 3 November 1891, though a date of 13 November 1890 appears in his naval records. That last date must be incorrect, because he does not appear on the 1891 Census. He was one of nine children, of whom three died in infancy.

Thomas Spinks died in 1905 and accordingly Leonard is recorded as “Son of Mrs A. E. Spinks of Runhall”.

According to the Census returns he was born in Barnham Broom; both his parents were natives of Barnham Broom and they were living there at the time of the 1891 Census. His naval records give his place of birth as Dereham, probably on the basis that one can locate Dereham on a map more easily than Barnham Broom.

He appears to have chafed at school; in 1904 the school log book repeatedly notes unauthorised absences by him. He was working as a farm
labourer when he enlisted in the Royal Navy on 4 April 1910. He is recorded as being 5 ft 5 in tall, with dark brown hair and grey eyes.

He was serving as a Stoker 1st Class on HMS Staunch, a Royal Navy Acorn class destroyer, when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Gaza, Palestine, on 11 November 1917. The submarine responsible was in turn sunk by French destroyers the following month.

By no means all of those on board Staunch lost their lives; the officer in command of the ship, Lieut-Commander Edmond Stanley, survived, was promoted to Commander the following month and received a new command the months after that. However, eight men were lost, five stokers including Leonard Spinks, two Petty Office Stokers and one Engine Room Artificer; a grim reminder of the fact that if a ship was hit, those in the engine room often stood little chance of survival.

Leonard Spinks’ body was never recovered; he is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Royal Navy Memorial, Portsmouth