THE brave men who died in a devastating attack in Lyme Bay have been remembered more than 100 years on.

The Royal Navy battleship HMS Formidable was sunk after being torpedoed by a German U-boat on New Year’s Day, 1915. The wreck lies on the seabed, around 25 miles due south of Lyme Regis.

And this week, two men set out from Portland to lay a wreath on the wreck.

The journey was a poignant way to honour the death of William Dingwall, who marked his 22nd birthday on the day of the attack. His body was never found.

His nephew Bob Hudson travelled all the way from his home in Spain to lay a wreath, after learning about William’s fate through researching family history. William’s brother Robert died on the Somme in 1917. Their sister, Mr Hudson’s mother, was born in 1910 and aged just four when William died.

Mr Hudson was taken to the wreck by the charter boat Big Buoy, which is based in Portland harbour and had Peter Targett on board as skipper.

It was important to Mr Hudson that the journey be undertaken in January, he said, so he could experience what conditions may have been like.

He said: “It was a real honour for me, and very poignant. Robert, who I’m named after, was killed on the Somme and we are very lucky in that there is a grave, which I went to visit about 30 years ago.”

Mr Hudson said he had not been aware of William before he began researching family history.

“I never knew my grandparents and had very few aunts and uncles, so there was always this huge hole in my life when it came to relatives.

“What happened to the HMS Formidable was absolutely awful. It should have been in harbour that day in Portland but someone in command decided to do a recce up the coast and that’s when a German U-boat found them.”

More than 500 men died that day. They are remembered in a memorial at Lyme Regis cemetery, which Mr Hudson also visited as part of his trip.

He added: “No one from my family has ever come here and honoured my uncle so I decided I would come and do it. It was really quite poignant to know my DNA is there, somewhere on the seabed. It was a good thing to do, but very sad.

“My mother would have been absolutely delighted. I can’t imagine what it must have been like, at that age, to have two brothers going off to war and never seeing them again.”

Mr Targett said: “This is part of our local history and I find it quite fascinating. When you look at how far out the ship was I just don’t know how any of them made it to shore.

“It’s nice people follow these family links through. It’s a way of remembering our local history.”