HMS E24 (Lt Cdr G W E Naper) sailed from Barrow on 17 January 1916 and joined 8th Flotilla at Harwich for North Sea patrols. She sailed for the first minelaying patrol by a Royal Navy submarine on 7 March 1916 and laid 20 mines 12 miles southeast of Heligoland. Two weeks later she sailed for a second minelaying operation but failed to return. It was presumed, and later confirmed, that she had struck a mine and was lost with All Hands.

The remains of twenty-five submariners were recovered from the wreck of HMS E24 after it was mistakenly salvaged’ in 1973 by the German Navy under the impression that they were recovering a lost U-Boat. These remains were subsequently buried in the Hamburg Cemetery in July 1973.

Examination of HMS E24 confirmed that her mine-tubes were empty and that she had completed her mission and that it was most likely that E24 was sunk by a German minefield.