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At 4.26pm on 31st May, 1916, a terrific explosion occurred
on the British battle-cruiser, HMS Queen Mary, at the
beginning of the greatest of modern sea battles of the
20th century - Jutland. One and a half minutes later,
the ship sank with a complement of 1,266 officers and
crew, of which there were 20 survivors. Philip Malet de
Carteret was not one of them.
Born in Sydney, Australia on 23rd January, 1898, Philip
was the eldest son of Jurat Reginald Malet de Carteret
(1865-1935), Seigneur of St. Ouen's Manor in Jersey. He
was educated at Ebor Preparatory School in Lausanne (1907)
and Mr Rhodes' Mottingham and Eltham College, before entering
RNC Osborne in 1911. He took first prize in French on
leaving for RNC Dartmouth in 1913 to take his Midshipman's
course.
His father, Reginald had left Jersey for Australia and
en-route met and married there in 1895, Amy Anne Armstrong
(1865-1950). Philip's younger brother, Guy was born in
1901 and an elder sister, Ella Marie (Ellie) had been
born in 1896.
Philip was a keen sportsman. His 54 surviving letters
written during the Great War constantly narrate sporting
events - swimming, hockey matches and tennis. He wrote
37 letters to his father, 15 to Guy and 2 to Elizabeth
(Grandma). 7 were written prior to 1914.
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