Engine Room Artificer
William George
CHAFF
Royal Navy
30
William Chaff was born in Devonport, Devon, on 25 August 1909, the son of William Henry Cawe Chaff (a gas fitter/plumber for the Borough Council) and Ellen Maude Chaff (née Tozer) of 4, Admiralty Street.
William Chaff joined the Royal Navy straight from school as an Engine Room Artificer Apprentice at HMS FISGARD on 31 December 1924. After completion of his five year apprenticeship at HMS FISGARD and HMS PEMBROKE at Chatham he served in the battleships HMS RENOWN and HMS MALAYA from 31 August 1929 to 5 September 1932 and then in the cruisers HMS NORFOLK and HMS GALATEA from 6 September 1932 to 12 April 1938. Engine Room Artificer 2 Class Chaff joined HMS DOLPHIN ‘for the Submarine Course’ on 9 August 1938 and then served with the ‘Reserve Group Submarines’ from 24 October 1938 to 2nd January 1939. He next served in HMS NARWHAL from 11 January to 21 July 1939 and was then drafted to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS FORTH ‘for Submarine HMS OSWALD’ on 2 October 1939.
William Chaff died on 1 August 1940 when OSWALD was rammed and sunk by the Italian destroyer VIVALDI, South East of Capo Spartivento, Calabria, Italy.
He was the husband of Dorothy Chaff (née Bryant) of 18, St Martin’s Avenue, Peverell, Plymouth – they had been married in the Church at Stoke Damerel by the Bishop of Plymouth on 8 April 1931. There was one son of the marriage – David Chaff. William Chaff is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Panel 40 Column 1.
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Will Chaff was my mother’s uncle by marriage. This photo was taken on his wedding day, at which my mum was a bridesmaid aged about 7. His wife Dorothy remarried later in the war, to an Australian naval officer, Harold Burgin. Will and Dorothy had a son, David, who was aged one year at the time of his father’s death and at the time of writing this, still lives in Australia.