Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave

Who is Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave?

Wenman "Kit" Wykeham-Musgrave was a Royal Navy officer who has the possibly unique distinction of having survived being torpedoed on three different ships on the same day. He was born on 4 April 1899 at Barford, Warwick, Warwickshire, England, and was educated at Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight, England, and at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon, England.

He was serving as a midshipman aboard HMS Aboukir when, on the morning of the 22 September 1914, HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy, three pre-Dreadnought cruisers, were on patrol in the Broad Fourteens off the Dutch coast. They were attacked by the German U-Boat U-9, which was under the command of Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen. Wykeham-Musgrave's daughter, Pru Bailey-Hamilton, recounted the tale of his torpedoing during a BBC interview in 2003:

"He went overboard when the Aboukir was going down and he swam like mad to get away from the suction. He was then just getting on board the Hogue and she was torpedoed. He then went and swam to the Cressy and she was also torpedoed. He eventually found a bit of driftwood, became unconscious and was eventually picked up by a Dutch trawler."