Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

SCARLETT Leopold Florence (Francis), The Honourable, Lieutenant RAN
 
Leopold Scarlett was born into a distinguished military and naval family at Christchurch, Cambridgeshire, England on 17th March 1889. His father was Lt. Col. Leopold James Yorke Scarlett, 4th Baron of Abinger and his mother, Bessie Florence was a descendant of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelly. Four of the boys born into the family went on to be commissioned into either the Royal Navy or Army. When Leo was four years old, an older brother, Midshipman Lawrence Scarlett was lost at sea off Beirut in the collision of HMS Victoria (which sank with a loss of 358 lives) and HMS Camperdown.
 
When he reached school age, Leo was sent to a private boarding school, Ascham House, at Bournemouth in Devon where he began his preparation for a naval career. In 1904, his father died and Leo’s eldest brother became the 5thBaron Abinger. The title carried with it a seat in the House of Lords and a Royal Warrant issued at the time granted the honorific “Honourable” to Leopold Florence Scarlett.  Leo probably went to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth for several years before being commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. In 1911, Lieutenant Scarlett was attached to HMS Mercury; a submarine depot ship at Portsmouth as well as serving with submarines in Malta where he became friends with Lieutenant Thomas Besant who went on to command the Australian submarine AE-1. Leo’s career in the Royal Navy was cut short when he contracted tuberculosis. At that time, there were no drugs or treatment for TB save for a change in climate. Leo’s elder brother, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Scarlett was the Aide de Camp to the Queensland Governor, Sir William McGregor and it was perhaps at his suggestion that Leo went to Brisbane. Leo lived with his brother at Government House in Brisbane for a time. It was also arranged that Leo would holiday and rest on the Darling Downs and at Cressbrook Station on the banks of the Brisbane River near Toogoolawah, managed by the well know McConnel family. It was widely thought that exposure to the country in Toogoolawah and Toowoomba would aid in Leo’s recovery. It may have been at this time that Leo changed his middle name to Francis which he preferred to be called.
 
In 1911, The Royal Australian Navy was formed with the arrival of a fleet of new ships headed by HMAS Australia into Sydney. In that same year, the Australian government resolved to order two E class submarines to be built by Vickers Limited at Barrow in Furness, Scotland. While the boats were being constructed, crews were being mustered by calling for volunteers or secondment of Royal Navy personnel. The submarines (AE-1, AE-2) were launched in 1913. After the submarines were commissioned into the RAN in February 1914 at Portsmouth, the two boats sailed for Australia, often under tow by escort ships. Upon arrival in Sydney on 23rd May, the two submarines went to Cockatoo Island for an extensive overhaul after two and half months at sea. Both boats had recurring mechanical and engineering issues, including cracked propellor blades. The crews went into shore billets as the work continued. It is possible that Lieutenant Commander Besant took this time to travel to Brisbane where his friend Leo Scarlett, by then fully recovered, had taken over the duties of Aide de Camp to the Queensland Governor from his brother Hugh.
 
As soon as war was declared, the RAN came under the remit of the British Admiralty and the Australian Fleet Commander, Rear Admiral Sir George Patey was ordered to take the Australian Fleet into the Pacific to destroy German Radio Stations. The submarines remained at Cockatoo Island under repair. While Patey scoured the Pacific looking for radio stations and the ships of the German East Asia flotilla, the Australian Government began to assemble an Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force to secure German possessions in German New Guinea and the Western Pacific, particularly the wireless station at Rabaul which provided radio communication to Admiral Graf von Spee’s East Asia squadron. An initial force of 2,000 men comprising army volunteers and Naval reservists, designated the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, was raised in Sydney. It was planned that the two now sea worthy submarines would join the rest of the Patey’s squadron in New Guinea Waters.
 
On the 10th August 1914, while the AN and MEF was being assembled, Leo Scarlett was signed on to the Royal Australian Navy as a Lieutenant assigned to Besant’s submarine AE-1. The reason for this remains unclear as AE-1 would have already had its full complement of three officers.  What is clear is that Thomas Besant was glad to have his friend on board AE-1. The boats were cramped and there was only sufficient accommodation for three officers. The submarines, accompanied by a gunboat and a submarine tender departed Sydney Harbour on 28th August. The crew list for AE-1 lists three officers; Lt Commander Besant, Lt Moore and Lt Scarlett. Besant and Scarlett often stood on the bridge together as the AE-1 proceeded north on the surface under diesel power. By the 9th September 1914, both the submarines,  Patey’s RAN squadron and the 2,000 strong invasion force all rendezvoused near Rossel Island in the Louisade Archipelago. The entire naval force moved up to Rabaul and dropped anchor on 11th September.
 
Patey wanted send the submarines out on patrol around the Duke of York Islands between New Britain and New Ireland. AE-1 had engine trouble so AE-2 did the first patrol on 13th September. The next day, Monday 14th September 1914, AE-1 accompanied by HMAS Parramatta moved out into St George’s Channel. The submarine’s starboard engine was still not operable as the two ships exchanged messages agreeing to split up with Parramatta heading south and Besant and AE-1 heading north east. The two vessels came together later in the afternoon for about an hour before AE-1 slowly disappeared into a thickening sea mist in a northerly direction.
 
AE-1 was not sighted again. When she failed to return to Rabaul at 6:00pm or respond to urgent radio signals, Patey ordered Parramatta and HMAS Yarra to begin a search with searchlights and navigation lights ablaze. There were no enemy vessels in the area and it seemed that AE-1 had suffered a catastrophic accident with the loss of 35 lives.
 
Fred Kenny, surgeon on the Submarine tender, wrote to his wife about the loss of the three officers on board AE-1 and with whom he had established a warm friendship. Of Leopold Scarlett, he wrote “Scarlett was a handsome curly headed young devil with a fine face and a genial manner. He and I took to each other for his people have a station on the Upper Burnett (River in Queensland) … His people are cattle people.”
 
No wreckage was discovered in the days following the loss which discounted the possibility of an explosion. The most likely explanation put forward was that there had been a mishap while conducting a practice dive. During the next hundred years, there were 13 attempts to locate AE-1’s final resting place. When the wreck was finally located off the Duke of Yorke Islands using sophisticated side scan sonar, video camera evidence did indeed point to a valve only partly closed which would have allowed seawater to enter when diving.