Telegraph tape and tortoiseshell box: HMS Hampshire Lord Kitchener 1915-16
KITCHENER, Lord Horatio Herbert. Contemporary Telegraph Tape Announcing His Death in the Sinking of HMS Hampshire, with HMS Hampshire Silver and Tortoiseshell Presentation Box. 1915-1916.
Two interesting First World War survivals comprising a contemporary telegraph receiver tape reporting the sinking of HMS Hampshire and the death of Lord Kitchener, together with a silver and tortoiseshell HMS Hampshire presentation box dated 1915. The paper tape measures approximately 2400 mm when extended. Lacking the opening few letters, with several old repairs and creasing from having been rolled, but substantially complete and legible considering its fragile format. Good condition.
The transmitted report reads, with minor losses and imperfections: "[His M]ajesty's ship Hampshire with Lord Kitchener and his staff on board was sunk last night about 8 o'clock to the west of the Orkney Islands either by a mine or torpedo. Four boats were seen by observers on shore to leave the ship. The weather was [...] and heavy seas were running. Vessels and destroyers at once proceeded to the spot and a party was sent along the coast to search but only some bodies and a capsized boat have been found [...]. As the whole shore has been searched there is no hope of there being any survivors. No [...] had yet been received from the search party on shore. HMS Hampshire was on her way to Russia."
Accompanying the tape is a circular silver-mounted tortoiseshell presentation box, approximately 80 mm in diameter and 30 mm deep, raised on four feet, with hinged lid and cushioned interior. The lid is applied with a crowned Hampshire rose above a ribbon inscribed "H.M.S. HAMPSHIRE" and the date "1915". Hallmarked silver and bearing the retailer's mark of The Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Ltd. The firm, established in 1880 by William Gibson and John Lawrence Langman, was one of London's leading jewellers and silversmiths and was particularly associated with high-quality presentation silver and specially commissioned pieces. The naval insignia and 1915 date indicate that the box was produced as an HMS Hampshire presentation or commemorative piece during the ship's service and, significantly, before her loss the following year.
HMS Hampshire was lost off Orkney on 5 June 1916 while carrying Field Marshal Lord Kitchener and his staff on a diplomatic mission to Russia. Kitchener, Secretary of State for War and one of the most recognisable British figures of the First World War, was among the members of his party lost with the ship. The tape is particularly striking for the immediacy of its report: the cause is still given as "either by a mine or torpedo", rescue operations remain underway, and the message records the rapidly disappearing hope of finding survivors. An uncommon pairing of two contemporary HMS Hampshire survivals.