MAN WHO STAYED BEHIND.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14597, 6 May 1918, Page 5

MAN WHO STAYED BEHIND.

LAST SHOT AS HIS SHIP SANK. LONDON. March 4. The wonderful heroism of a man who before the war was a village fisherman is disclosed in an Admiralty letter. The , ex-fisherman, Joseph Watkihs by name, belonged to Angle, iri South Pembiokeshire. He went down in H.M.S. Champagne, an armed mercantile .cruiser sunk by a U-boat <m October 9 last. Tho Admiralty, writing to the widow; state that after tho order to abandon ship had been given, Watkins volunteered to remain on board and man one of the guns, and be continued firing on the submarine while his own ship was actually sinking. The Lords of the Admiralty expressed their sympathy and appreciation of her husband's gallant conduct. Watkins was for many years a member of the Angle lifeboat crew and was called up as a member of the Royal Naval Reserve in August 1914. In 1916 he was awarded a silver medal by the Russian Government for bravery and endurance in assisting to navigate H.M.S. Jupiter to the port of Archangel in winter. Fivo officers and 51 men lost their lives in the Champagne.