ACTING ENGINE ROOM ARTIFICER 4TH CLASS GEORGE DOIG CHALMERS
ROYAL NAVY
1ST JUNE 1916 AGE 21
BURIED: FREDRIKSTAD MILITARY CEMETERY, NORWAY
'Abide with me' are the opening words of the first verse, and the last words of every verse, of a hymn known by the same name. Written by Henry Francis Lyte in 1847, a large part of the hymn's great popularity is attributable to the tune, Eventide, written by William Henry Monk in 1861. Sung at funerals, military services, royal weddings and sporting events, it is one of the best-known hymns of all time.
The words, based around two passages from the bible, bring comfort to both the dying and to the bereaved. This is the first verse:
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
It was apparently very popular during the First World War and it certainly featured in a set of Bamforth postcards showing a soldier praying in the trenches, kneeling by a battlefield grave, alone in No Man's Land and being held by a nurse whilst dying.
George Doig Chalmers was an engine fitter from the Govan shipyards on the River Clyde. He enlisted in the Royal Navy on 27 November 1915 and after a month's training on HMS Pembroke, the name of the naval training establishment at Chatham, he joined HMS Fortune on 27 December 1915. On the night of the 31 May/1 June 1916, during the Battle of Jutland, Fortune was hit in a firefight, caught fire and sank. There were eight survivors.
Over the next weeks a few bodies from the Battle of Jutland drifted ashore off the coasts of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. But only a very few, more than 6,000 British sailors died at Jutland, the bodies of fewer than 200 were recovered. Chalmers' body was one of those recovered and on 24 June he and another crew member, Arthur Stott, were buried in the town cemetery in Fredrikstad, Norway along with sixteen other British Jutland casualties, only seven of them identified - one from HMS Ardent, two from HMS Tipperary and two from HMS Queen Mary.
