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One of the greatest Cornish maritime artists of his generation, George Fagan Bradshaw DSO (1887-1960) settled in St Ives after World War I after service as a submariner, which saw him awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his action on this day in 1917 but also, later, court martialled.
Joining the Naval training ship in Dartmouth, HMS Britannia, at the age of fourteen he served in Malta between 1912 and 1913 and was given command of his first submarine in February 1914 until August 1916 when he was given command of a larger, fast and better armed boat and posted to patrol the waters of Scotland and Norway. On this day in 1916, he torpedoed SM UC-43, a German minelaying U-boat for which achievement he was awarded his DSO. He also claimed to have sunk a commercial submarine, the Bremen, in September 1921 but was not credited with the kill as it was simply recorded as missing.
In November 1918 his latest command, HMS G-11, ran aground near Howick with the loss of two men. Whilst the official cause was stated as faulty equipment, a second incident, when his new boat, HMS K-15 sank through a design fault, he was subjected to, but acquitted at, a court martial. When informed he would be given no new command he resigned his commission and moved to St. Ives and spent the rest of his life there, painting. His most famous work is ‘On Patrol 1914-1918’ (pictured above). |
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