Richard Walter Gould

1886 - 1914  (28 years)

• Name	Richard Walter Gould
  Born	10 Feb 1886	Portland, Hampshire, England
  Gender	Male
  Residence	1891	29 Southwell, Portland, Dorset, England   [1]
  Occupation	1901  [2]
  	Stone Quarryman (boy)
  Residence	1901	20 Southwell, Portland, Dorset, England   [2]
  Military Service	15 Jul 1904  [3]
  	R.N
  Occupation	15 Jul 1904  [3]
  	quarryman
  Residence	1908	Avalanche Road, Portland, Dorset, England   [4]
  Military Discharge	4 Aug 1909  [3]
  	R.N
  Occupation	2 Apr 1911  [5]
  	quarryman
  Residence	2 Apr 1911	34 Southwell, Portland, Dorset, England   [5]
  Military Service	13 Jul 1914  [3]
  	R.N
  Military Service	1 Nov 1914  [3]
  	stoker 1st class
  _UID	B63FC22D197749D4846E315EC3D56BC4D9D0
  Died	1 Nov 1914	Battle of Coronel, Chile   [3]
  Buried	Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
  Person ID	I15678	My Big Tree
  Last Modified	13 Jan 2021

  
  

  Father	Richard Gould,   b. 1848, Thornford, Dorset, England ,   d. 1917, Weymouth, Dorset, England  (Age 69 years)
  Mother	Jane Susan Elliott,   b. 1857, Portland, Hampshire, England ,   d. 1933, Weymouth, Dorset, England  (Age 76 years)
  Married	9 Sep 1875	Portland, Dorset, England   [6, 7]
  Family ID	F5557	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Ann Elliott Comben,   b. 1889, Weymouth, Dorset, England ,   d. 1929, Weymouth, Dorset, England  (Age 40 years)
  Married	1907	Weymouth, Dorset, England
  Children	1. Richard Walter Gould,   b. 24 Mar 1908, Weymouth, Hampshire, England ,   d. 1971, Weymouth, Dorset, England  (Age 62 years)   2. Bertie Ernest E Gould,   b. 22 Jul 1914, Weymouth, Dorset, England ,   d. 1987, Weymouth, Dorset, England  (Age 72 years)
  Last Modified	30 Jul 2012
  Family ID	F7690	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Headstones

  Richard Walter Gould 1 Nov 1914

  
  

• Notes

  On the 1901 census as Walter Gould Richard died when the ship he was serving on, HMS Good Hope was lost in action of the coast of Chile in 1914. The normal complinet was 900 crew, none survived HMS Good Hope was a Drake class heavy cruiser. When completed these were amongst the faster ships in the world, and even in 1914 their top speed of 23kts compared well with the 23.5kts of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the more modern German cruisers that would sink the Good Hope at Coronel. The Good Hope served in home waters for much of her career. In 1906 she was the flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet, and was one of the largest cruisers in the fleet. However that year saw the completion of HMS Dreadnaught, and a revolution in warship design. The next generation of cruisers would carry more of their heaviest guns, dangerously blurring the lines between the cruiser and the battleship and resulting in the heavily armed battlecruiser. In 1908 the Good Hope became the flag ship of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron at South Africa. In 1913 she went into the naval reserve, but in July 1914 she was re-commissioned during the Test Mobilisation that took place just before the outbreak of the First World War. At the outbreak of war, the Good Hope joined the 6th Cruiser Squadron as part of the Grand Fleet. However, she was soon detached from that squadron and sent to reinforce Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock's South American Squadron, becoming his flagship. Cradock was under orders to intercept Admiral von Spee's cruiser squadron. This contained five modern cruisers, amongst them the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau. These were also pre-Dreadnaught cruisers, but were much better armed than the Good Hope, each carrying eight 8.2in guns, six of which could be used on any one target (four of the guns were carried on the sides of each ship). The Good Hope's two 9.2in guns were the only guns in the British squadron that were not outranged by the German 8.2in guns Learning that von Spee was planning to sail into the South Atlantic, Cradock took his fleet into the Pacific. There he was ambushed by von Spee at Coronel (1 November 1914). The Good Hope was lost with all hands, (as was the Monmouth), without causing any significant damage to the German fleet. Having been crippled earlier in the battle by fire from the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the Good Hope was eventually finished off by the German light cruiser N

  
  

• Sources

  [S15] 1891 Census (Reliability: 3). [S16] 1901 Census (Reliability: 3). [S220] Military Record, accessed 2 Oct 2019 (Reliability: 4). [S228] Electoral Roll (Reliability: 4). [S215] 1911 Census, England., (n.d.), citing RG 78, RG 14 (Reliability: 3). [S18] Marriage Cert (Reliability: 4). [S282] Marriage Index (Reliability: 3).