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Eaton Place

One of the most astonishing London ghost stories, and there are many, is that of Sir George Try on. On the night of 22 June 1893, Lady Tryon was holding one of her exclusive 'At Home' parties for carefully selected guests, at her beautiful, very elegant house in Eaton Place, Belgravia. The fashionably-dressed ladies and the gentlemen were chatting together as they sipped their champagne, when suddenly, without any warning, the fine figure of Admiral Sir George Tryon, in full naval uniform, entered the drawing-room. A great hush fell over the room as he strode across, passing his wife without even acknowledging her, and vanished.

The silence in the room could be heard. Only Lady Tryon, a few of her closest friends and one or two guests knew that Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, KCB, was in command of the Mediterranean Squadron then manoeuvring off the coast of Syria. Not one of the people in that room could have guessed that at the very moment he had entered the drawing-room in complete silence, his dead body was lying in the wreckage of his flagship VICTORIA at the bottom of the Mediterranean. If, in that stunned silence, the sight of the Admiral was extraordinary, the reason for his death was even more of a mystery.

His flagship was at the head of one of the two columns steaming along, the other was headed by HMS CAMPER-DOWN under the command of Admiral Markham. Admiral Tryon had given specific orders for the two columns to steam parallel with each other until they reached a certain point when they were to turn in towards each other. It was immediately evident to every officer in both columns that such a signal could only end in disaster, but orders from the flagship were not to be challenged and the two columns moved together at the given signal. At some point, one of the officers, perhaps even Admiral Markham, signalled the flagship that in his judgement the distance between the two lines was totally insufficient to avoid a catastrophe, but Sir George was adamant and repeated his original decision.

The battleships, reaching the point given to them, began to turn inwards and there occurred the catastrophe that had been feared, for HMS CAMPERDOWN crashed into the flagship, causing it to heel over and sink with an enormous loss °f Hfe. All the engine-room crew were trapped like rats, unable to stop the thrashing screws which cut to pieces the floating bodies of those who had managed to jump overboard.

The wrecked and shattered ship sank to the bottom of the sea with Sir George Tryon still on board. With him was one of his midshipmen who had refused the Admiral's last order to save himself and so died with his Admiral. When the sea poured into the fires on board, the two columns of ships and hundreds of men heard a colossal explosion, as the disintegrated flagship vanished from sight. One of the lucky ones to escape this terrible disaster was a young sailor named John Rushworth Jellicoe, who was later to be raised to the Peerage as Earl Jellicoe, Admiral of the Fleet in the famous Battle of Jutland in the First World War.

No one will ever know why so distinguished a naval commander as Sir George Tryon signalled such an order as he did, and actually persisted in its being carried out. A full enquiry was undertaken with great thoroughness, but nothing could be achieved for Admiral Tryon alone could have given his reason and he was not there. One very important statement was made by one of those who had been saved. He told the Court that as the ship began to sink, the voice of Sir George was heard to say Tt is all my fault'.

Could it perhaps have been that at the very moment of that terrible disaster Sir George thought of home and although he had no knowledge of what his wife was doing, he might have passed through the rooms to find her? It is the only possible explanation one can offer for his sudden ghostly appearance in that hushed and crowded drawing-room in Eaton Place, where Lady Tryon was entertaining her guests and friends at an 'At Home' party. Canterbury | Egypt | London | Royal Mile |