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WW1 victims of U-boats

◀️ Notable graves in Fulham Cemetery | ◀️ Articles

8 May 2026 • Rebecca Thomas

One of the most effective weapons of the First World War was the German U-boat. The U-boats (from the German “underseeboots”) were submarines armed with missiles, which hunted down and sank ships in British waters. In early April 1917, at the height of their success, it is estimated that the U-boats sank an average of 13 ships a day. It is unsurprising, therefore, that there are a couple of gravestones in the cemetery which commemorate the victims of these attacks.

(Top) The first German submarine, the SM U-1. Wikipedia, Public domain

Able Seaman John Robert Raven

1894–1918

Able Seaman John Robert Raven (b.1878) was serving on HMS Hawke when it became one of the first British ships to be sunk by a German U-boat.

On 15 October 1914 HMS Hawke was patrolling off the coast of Aberdeen as part of efforts to stop German warships from attacking a troop convoy from Canada. At 10.30 am she was torpedoed and quickly capsized. John Raven and 523 other men drowned in the North Sea and there were only 70 survivors.

Before the War John had worked as a warehouseman, and lived with his wife, Edith (née Drury) at Sutton Dwellings in Chelsea. Tragically, the same gravestone commemorates the short life of their infant son, John Edward James Raven, who died just over a year later in 1915, aged 21 months.

The grave is located in Section 9A in the west of the cemetery. 51°28'48.0"N 0°13'02.1"W

Private John Coleman

1892–1915

Private John Coleman was born in Fulham in 1892. His father, Charles Coleman, was a local chimney sweep who died in 1896 and at some point after 1911 John and his remaining family, including his mother, Catherine Emma (nee Waspe), moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

John, who worked as a mill hand, joined the army in November 1914 and served in the 19th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. By September 1915 the Battalion was stationed in France and John must have been wounded in action shortly after. On 17 November 1915 he boarded HMHS Anglia, a steamer which had been commissioned as a hospital ship to transport 390 injured soldiers from Calais to Dover. At 12.30 that day HMHS Anglia struck a mine laid by a U-boat and sank quickly within 15 minutes. Although a nearby gunboat managed to rescue some of the patients, nurses and crew, John Coleman and 133 others were drowned.

John’s life is commemorated on the Coleman family tombstone in Fulham Cemetery and on the Hollybrook War Memorial in Southampton.

The grave is located in Section 9A in the southwest of the cemetery. 51°28'43.9"N 0°13'01.6"W

Photo and research contributed by Rebecca Thomas

The sinking of the HMS Hawke

German U-boats at Kiel, February 1914

On 6 August 1914, two days after Britain had declared war on Germany, the German U-boats U-5, U-7, U-8, U-9, U-13, U-14, U-15, U-16, U-17, and U-18 sailed from their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.

HMS Hawke

During World War I, Hawke was part of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, performing blockade duties. She was sunk by the German U-boat U-9 in the North Sea in October 1914, resulting in the loss of 524 crew members.

The sinking of the HMS Hawke, 15 October 1914

German artistic impression of the sinking of HMS Hawke by Willy Stoewer 1914.

The wreck of Hawke was discovered in August 2024, 70 miles off the coast of Scotland.

WW1 victims of U-boats

Able Seaman John Robert Raven

1894–1918

Private John Coleman

1892–1915

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The sinking of the HMS Hawke

German U-boats at Kiel, February 1914

HMS Hawke

The sinking of the HMS Hawke, 15 October 1914

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