John Stephen Stroud, my Greatgrandfather, was one of 9 seamen killed in action at Riga in Latvia when their gun position took a direct strike from one of several shells fired by German and White "Bermontian" forces under the leadership of Pavel Bermondt-Avalov.
Although I've been really interested in this events for many years information was really hard to find at first and I can well understand why the Naval campaign in the Baltic between 1918 and 1920 is often referred to as a "forgotten War" being overshadowed by the scale of events during World War One.
Gradually, information has became more readily available thanks to the internet and several books that have been published. I can now better understand the situation in the Baltic and why the signing of the Armistice did not signal the end of war conditions for the many so called "volunteers" who served in the Baltic during 1918-1920 and those like John and the other 15 Royal Naval Officers , 91 Ratings, 4 Royal Air Force Officers and 1 Airman killed in action.
I now have lots of small pieces of information from a variety of sources and it's too much for hmsdragon1919.co.uk
I've therefore decided to set up this blog to complement the website.
I'm hoping to post the little snippets of information that I have obtained in the hope that other families of the crew that were killed in action or families and descendants of crew who served during that period whether on Dragon or any of the other ships might want to get in touch and perhaps contribute their own stories.
Today is Remembrance Day and this is my contribution to ensure that the names of these boys and men are not forgotten.
