Walter Ernest O'Neil Yeo

Three photographs of Yeo taken in 1916 after the Battle of Jutland.

Gunner William Ernest O'Neil Yeo (20 October, 1890 – 21 December, 1960) was a Warrant Officer of the Royal Navy.

Yeo entered the Royal Navy on 25 May 1906 as a Boy, 2nd Class.

He was rated Leading Seaman on 4 November 1912 and on 3 December he passed educationally for Petty Officer.

On 9 June 1914 he was appointed to the mine-sweeping gun-boat Circe, where he remained until 1 November, when he returned to Devonport and the books of Vivid I. On 1 April he joined the new battleship Warspite. He passed in Seamanship for Warrant Officer on 14 February 1916. At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May he was "Severely wounded in action". He appears in an article by Temporary Surgeon Cecil G. P. Wakeley of the Royal Naval Hospital, Queensferry. Case No. 4, 25 years old, wearing a cap with a Warspite ribbon, is clearly Yeo, who received second, third, and fourth degree burns to his face, neck, trunk and limbs.

Had profuse haemorrhage from face fourth day after admission, which kept up for two days. Healing delayed. There was some scarring at the upper part of the face due to the hæmorrhage, and ectopion of both eyes. Hands and legs healed quickly (see figs. 7, 8, 9)

From 2 June onwards he was borne on the books of Vivid I. On 29 June 1917 he was promoted Acting Gunner.

In 1920 his seniority as Gunner was ante-dated to 14 December 1916.

Bibliography

• Wakeley, Temporary Surgeon C. G. P. (April, 1917). "The Temporary Treatment of War Burns." Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service. III:2. pp. 156-162.

Service Records

• The National Archives. ADM 196/165/191.
• The National Archives. ADM 188/419/236326.