by Joyce Marian Barker nee Palmer
(Kent, United Kingdom)
Edwin Palmer, died May 31st 1916 aboard the Queen Mary when she exploded and sank during the Battle of Jutland. He was an Officer's cook/steward, and as such is remembered on the great Naval War Memorials at Southsea, Plymouth and Chatham.
I never knew him and have but one photograph of him, an unassuming man with a bright sparkle in his eyes. In the process of my family research I have found out much about this gentle, kind family man who was my beloved father's father, and have a letter from him to his wife, my grandmother which was entrusted to me by my cousin,Myra. I have come to love this man and to treasure his memory and all that I know of him, to feel his loss, and to grieve that I never knew him. Now that all those who knew him have joined him in death, perhaps he knows how precious he is to me and how he has his own special place forever in my heart