A C I Eric Edward Steere (B. 1901. D. Aug. 24, 1921)
Again, with grateful thanks to Rosalind Hodge we now have details of Edward Steer. Rosalind was able to supply the following information:
“I was very interested to see your site with info on the R38. I am the parish archivist at Willingdon and the Polegate Royal Naval Air Station covering 142 acres was wholly within the parish of Willingdon and was commissioned 6 July 1915. I am therefore doing a display on the RNAS as part of our large annual archive’s exhibition. I have been researching Eric Edward Steere who is of particular interest as he was a boy mechanic at the base and rescued colleagues in a fatal accident on 20 December 1917 just on the Downs above the village. I was born on land which was part of the base and still live on what was a perimeter track road of the base. Nothing remains of the station but 4 mooring blocks right at the base of the South Downs. My grandma used to tell me all about the airship station and how she and her father climbed up the downs in the snow to see the wreckage of the two airships.
Well, back to Eric Steere. He was born at 37 Gloucester Place Worthing on 22 February1900, baptised at St Andrews church Worthing 29 April 1900. He was the son of James Blann Steere a carpenter and joiner and Emily Alice nee Butcher, one of 7 surviving children. His elder brother Able Seaman Archibald George born 11 August 1894 was killed aged 21 when his vessel HMS ‘Lynx’ was mined off the Moray Firth 9 August 1915. This made Eric determined to enlist as soon as he could. On 25 January 1916 at the age of supposedly 18 years 13 days he enlisted at Shoreham as a Private G/11973 in the Royal West Kent Regt. He was 5ft 7 ins tall chest 37 1/2 ins, hair fair, eyes grey and complexion fresh. He gave his occupation as a Student at Naval College. However, after just 64 days he was discharged on 28 March 1916 under paragraph 392 the reason Soldier under 17 years of age on application. Not put off he enlisted in the Royal Navy Boy Mechanic F31041 on his 17th birthday. His occupation was recorded at TS ‘Mercury’ a shore based training ship on the Hamble Hampshire.
From then he was stationed on stone frigates as they were termed, RN land bases: On the 19 June 1917 he was on ‘President II’ for one day moving to ‘Daedalus’ (Cranwell) 20 June – 30 Sept, Daedalus’; I Oct -31Oct ‘Daedalus (Eastchurch); 1 Nov – 17 Nov ‘President II’ (Yarmouth) moving to ‘President II’ (Polegate) from 18 Nov – 31 Dec 1917. It was here he was involved in the fatal airship accident. He returned to ‘Daedalus’ (Polegate)? 1 Jan – 31 Mar 1918 when he was discharged from the RNAS and engaged to the RAF.
At the age of 17, Steere (at the time a civilian worker) responded to three badly injured crew members caught in a burning airship car at Polegate airship station, without concern to his own safety. He successfully rescued them before noting that the airship’s bombs were at high risk of detonating. Steere then detached and moved each bomb in succession to get them away from the fire. This incident involved a collision between SSZ7 and SSZ10 on Dec. 20, 1917. King George V presented Steere with the Albert Medal in Gold on March 6, 1918 at Buckingham Palace; Steere was 17 years old. This was a high honour for a civilian, recognizing selfless heroic actions. After working in the RNAS, Steere was promoted to Aircraftsman 1st Class in the RAF after the cessation of hostilities.
If you go to the East Sussex website http://www.eastsussexww1.org.uk and look on stories or Google Airship Disaster East Sussex WW1 you will see my story of the airship crash giving some details about Eric’s part in this. He was awarded the Albert Medal in gold by the King for his courage and was still only 17 years at the time of the incident.
He was on board the R36 Air Ministry demonstration flight on April 5, 1921 when two of the airship’s four control surfaces collapsed, causing her to dive at a rapid rate. He declared that he found the flight had “exciting difficulties”.
Sadly, after becoming a crew member on R38, he was killed on her fatal flight on Aug. 24, 1921 when she crashed in the Humber Estuary near Hull.