Leading Seaman 2090D, HM Yacht Zaida, Royal Naval Reserve
Died 17^th August 1916 aged 43
Remembered at Portsmouth Naval Memorial
& on both Blakeney War Memorials

Although registered at birth as Frederick Charles Claxtonand baptised with that name, 9^th April 1873, Blakeney, he was always known as Charles. He is on the War Memorial as C. Claxton. Charles was the son of Henry John Claxton (born 1841 Bale) and Elizabeth Betts (born 1838 Field Dalling). Henry and Elizabeth had 17 children in all. In 1911, they were living in the High Street, with their grandson Edward Wordingham, the son of their daughter Lucy Dorcas Claxton and her husband Edward Cushing aka Wordingham.

Navy Records give his date of birth as 10^th February 1872 while Blakeney School Admission Register gives it a year later, 18^th February 1873. He attended the school from 1876 till 1885, as Charles Claxton and the last time he appeared in any Blakeney record was the 1891 census. By 1911, Charles was at 19 Quay Street, Larne, Antrim, Ireland with his wife Annie and 4 children.

By early August 1916 he was on the yacht HM Yacht Zaida which was serving as a tender to HMS Hannibal, destroying petrol stores in the western Mediterranean, before moving to the Gulf of Alexandretta. There, just off the coast of Turkey, she was blown up (17^th August) and 13 were killed instantly including Charles.

Zaida (Arabic for fortunate) was owned by Archibald Primrose, 5^th Earl of Roseberry, 1^st Earl of Midlothian who was briefly British Prime Minster 1894-1895. She was one of many large private yachts taken over by the Admiralty and used for a variety of purposes. By August 1916, HM Yacht Zaida was possibly on a spying mission as Captain Charles L. Woolley, Military Intelligence Officer at Port Said, and a friend of T. E. Lawrence, was on board. He was amongst the crew that was captured.

There is conflicting evidence as to how HMYacht Zaida actually met her end – whether it was a mine, U boat or some other misfortune. Since the ultimate source of where German submarines were and what they were doing is extant and readily available in the war diaries of all individual U boats, both U35 and U38 can be ruled out. U35 was off Sicily on the 17^th August when she sank Swedish Prince while U38 had sailed from Constantinople on the 12^th, sunk the steamer Remembrance in the Aegean on the 14^th and was in the Straits of Sicily by the 18^th. The current opinion is that HM Zaida was sunk by Ottoman shore batteries.