Wainford, George

We have no photograph as yet.

In 1963 AB George Wainford was one of ten survivors of Jutland who recorded their recollections for an episode of the BBC programme the Great War. George is audio clip number 8 at https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-from-the-battle-of-jutland in which he recalls the carnage forward on HMS Onslaught.

There is also a 23 minute audio clip at https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-jutland. Transcript: So we fired our torpedoes and there was a terrific explosion and the German ship blew up like that. ‘Cor,’ they said, ‘we got them!’ And the moment somebody said that, either one shell or a salvo hit our bridge. There was a terrific bang, a fire started the port side of the fo’castle, well that was extinguished. And hear a lot of shouting on the fo’castle head so I went to go up there. And a sub lieutenant* was there, he said, ‘Where are you going, Wainford?’ I said, ‘On the fo’castle, sir, to help.’ ‘Keep down below out of it, find something else to do.’ So I thought, ‘I wonder why he said that?’ I found out later that the foremost forward gun had a direct hit, they were all killed and injured. Commanding officer was killed, first lieutenant was killed, warrant officer was killed – that was the three officers. The coxswain at the wheel was killed and there were several more wounded. You know, it was a bit of a shambles really.


 * Harry Kemmis


 * 1) HMS Onslaught Crew List (Photographs)
 * 2) HMS Onslaught Crew List (updated in Real-time)