Albert Edwin Renshaw

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Grave/Memorial:  		Renshaw, Albert E

31 December 1893, St John’s, Woking, Surrey

Charles and Hannah (née Ball)

Royal Navy (H.M.S. Vernon)

M.32183

El Artificer 4th Class

3 July 1918, Haslar Hospital, Gosport, age 24

St John’s Cemetery, Woking, Surrey 		      

Biography:
Albert Edwin Renshaw was born, in St John’s, on 31 December 1893. He was the son of Charles, a dairyman, and Hannah Maria (née Ball).

Albert would have attended St John’s School. After leaving school, he took an apprenticeship at St Martha’s printing works and then worked as a
toolmaker at Pilgrim Way Motor Works, Farnham.

When war broke out, Albert tried several times to enlist, but was unsuccessful. He joined the Royal Navy on 27 May 1918. He stood 5 feet 11 inches tall;
his complexion was described as ‘fair’, he had brown hair and grey eyes. He was assigned to H.M.S. Vernon.

Albert Edwin Renshaw contracted influenza in June 1918 and died of pneumonia in Haslar Hospital, Gosport on 3 July 1918. He is buried within St John’s
Cemetery, Woking.
The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer ‘Spanish flu’, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by
the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. It is generally accepted to have caused 25–50 million deaths


     
 H.M.S. Vernon was a shore establishment or "stone frigate" of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. Vernon was established on 26 April
1876, as the Royal Navy's Torpedo Branch also known as the Torpedo School, named after the ship H.M.S. Vernon which served
as part of its floating base. After the First World War, H.M.S. Vernon moved ashore, taking over the Gunwharf site, where it
continued to operate until 1 April 1996.