Alfred Paddy was born in Cheadle, Cheshire, on 6th May 1892, the second son of Edwin and Jane Paddy (née Pound). In 1901, the family lived in Catford, London, where Edwin worked as a cricket groundsman. When Alfred left school, he became a butcher’s assistant and, on 1st October 1908, he enlisted in the Royal Navy. Records show that Alfred lied about his age so that he appeared to be 18 years old; he signed on for five years with a further seven years in the Fleet Reserve. Over the course of his first five years in the navy, Alfred served on HMS Inflexible, HMS Lord Nelson, HMS Duncan – all newly commissioned battleships – and HMS Endeavour – a survey ship.

On 2nd November 1913, Alfred transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve and returned to “civvy street”. At the start of 1914, he responded to an advert placed by St Audry’s Hospital, calling for sportsmen or musicians to join their staff as attendants as, it was believed that staff with these skills would be beneficial to their patients. The Paddy family had a love of cricket, with Alfred’s father, Edwin, being a cricket groundsman, his elder brother, Arthur, a professional player and Alfred, a keen amateur.

Alfred started work at St Audry’s on 16th February 1914 as an attendant; he soon became a member of the hospital’s cricket team. On the 23rd May 1914, Alfred and the St Audry’s team beat Stowmarket, bowling them out for sixty-six, with Alfred scoring forty of St Audry’s one hundred and sixty runs.

In mid-July 1914, Alfred was set to leave St Audry’s, but before his month’s notice was over, he was called up to the Naval Reserve due to the imminent outbreak of war.

On 2nd August 1914, Alfred joined his new ship, HMS Cressy, a heavy cruiser built fifteen years earlier in 1899. The Cressy was soon in action, playing a minor role in the Battle of Heligoland on 28th August 1914, the first naval battle of the war. Less than a month later on the 22nd September, the Cressy, along with HMS Hogue and HMS Aboukir, were patrolling the North Sea in support of destroyers and submarines based at the port of Harwich. Poor weather had forced their escort ships to seek shelter from the storm, leaving the three ships unprotected. No attack from submarines was expected, but lookouts were posted and guns manned. Despite this, at 06:20, HMS Aboukir was hit by a torpedo fired by a German submarine, the U9, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen, causing the ship to list badly and sink. The captain of the Aboukir, believing that his ship had struck a mine, ordered the Cressy and Hogue to come close to transfer wounded sailors. As the Hogue neared the sinking Aboukir, U9 fired two more torpedos, hitting the Hogue and causing her to sink in less than fifteen minutes. The U9 surfaced briefly due to her decrease in weight after firing the torpedos. This was spotted by the captain of the Cressy, who attempted to ram the U9 before she submerged once more. The attempt was unsuccessful and the Cressy resumed her efforts rescuing the survivors from the Aboukir and Hogue. The U9 then fired her last torpedo which hit the Cressy on the port side, rupturing her boilers and causing her to list and then capsize.

The navy lost three battle cruisers, to a single submarine, in less than two hours. Eight hundred and thirty-seven men were rescued from the ships, but sixty-two officers and one thousand, three hundred and ninetyseven ratings lost their lives; five hundred and sixty, including Alfred, from the Cressy alone. Alfred is remembered on the Chatham Naval War Memorial and the War Memorial at St Andrew’s, Melton. For his war service, Alfred’s family received the 1914-15 Star and the British War and Victory Medals.