my grandfather was chief stoker at the time wakeful was lost. His name was Henry James Chapman.When she was torpedoed by the German E boat the wakeful had already rescued over 600 men from Bray Dunes and had avoided being ed by enemy aircraft.At the time of the torpedoe attack she was carrying 640 soldiers. I was told some years ago that the men of the wakeful were unable to "fight the ship" at the time of the attack due to the severe overcrowding.The wakeful was travelling at over 20 knots when it was hit in the forward boiler room. My grandfather had been in the navy since 1918 having joined as a boy sailor as had his father before him.(Also a stoker) He had many times had the opportunity for promotion which may have ensured his survival but had regularly 'refused' as he wanted nothing more than to remain with his friends in the engine room as a three badge stoker or 'stripy' He apparently ensured this by getting into 'scrapes' immediately prior to promotion boards. My mother wrote a poem refering to wakefuls last action reproduced below with her permission. My family has a long tradition of Naval service which is being continued today as my son is due to enter Raleigh next week
THE DUNKIRK TELEGRAM
The telegram came,heres what it said,
"Your husband is missing,to be presumed "
That man to me ,who was my life
And I to him,his loving wife
Twas then I knew that the cruel sea
Had taken my love away from me
They'd needed ships- they'd needed men
To bring those soldiers home again,
An old destroyer he'd been on
Too many men to put upon
A German topedoe cleft it in two
So sunk the poor ship with all of the crew
Off Dunkirk beach that fateful day
Seven hundred brave men were blown away
I know a few of them survived
But God, too many of them died!
I'll weep no more, pray that we learn
A war such as this should never return
E.M Cowley Ne Chapman
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