More about William Steel Keillor

William was the son of Mr & Mrs James Keillor, 10 Albert St Dundee. He has no known grave but is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

William was serving aboard H.M.S. Monmouth which was an armoured Cruiser, part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron patrolling the Central Atlantic to search for German Raiders and protect Allied Shipping. She was later ordered to the South Atlantic to join Rear Admiral Craddock’s Squadron in their search for the German East Asia Squadron. He found the German Squadron on 1st November of the coast of Chile. The German Squadron outnumbered Craddock’s force and were individually more powerful. They sank Craddock’s 2 Armoured Cruisers. Monmouth was lost with all hands. William was only 16 years old when he died.

William Steel Keillor   J/25317   Royal Navy

KEILLOR^___Lost in action on Chilian coast, with H.M.S. Monmouth, William Steel Keillor, boy 1st Class aged 16 years, eldest son of James Keillor, 185 Princess Street, Dundee.

Dundee People’s Journal 21st November 1914

William S Keillor was the son of Mr and Mrs James Keillor of 185 Princes Street, Dundee and later 10 Albert Street, Dundee. He volunteered to join the Royal Navy as a Boy Second Class in July 1913 and had been employed as a Millworker. He trained at HMS Ganges at Ipswich in Suffolk and was drafted, as a Boy First Class, to the cruiser HMS Edgar in January 1914. In June he went to the Naval Barracks in Devonport before joining the cruiser HMS Monmouth in July. The Monmouth was lost with all hands off Chile in the Battle of Coronel against the German Pacific Squadron. William Keillor is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Plymouth Hoe.