Charles Fryatt Charles Algernon Fryatt ( 2 December 1872 – 27 July 1916 ) was a British mariner who was executed by the Germans for attempting to ram a U - boat in 1915 . When his ship , the , was captured off the Netherlands in 1916 , he was court - martial led and sentenced to death although he was a civilian non - combatant . International outrage followed his execution near Bruges , Belgium . In 1919 , his body was reburied with full honours in the United Kingdom . Early life . Fryatt was born on 2 December 1872 in Southampton , the son of Charles and Mary Fryatt . He attended Freemantle School in the late 1870s . In 1881 , Fryatt ' s family lived at 22 Trinity Terrace , in St Mary ' s , Southampton , but later moved to Harwich , Essex where he attended the Corporation School . He and his wife , Ethel , had seven children ; six girls and one boy . The children were Olive , Victoria , Doris , Vera , Mabel , Charles and Dorothy . The younger Charles later followed his father into the merchant navy , training at HMS " Worcester " . On leaving school , Fryatt entered the Mercantile Marine , serving on SS " County Antrim " , SS " Ellenbank " , SS " Marmion " and SS " Harrogate " . In 1892 , Fryatt joined the Great Eastern Railway as a seaman on . Fryatt ' s father had been the First Officer on . Fryatt rose through the ranks , serving on various ships . His first command was . In 1913 , he was appointed master of . U - boat attack . On 3 March 1915 , Fryatt ' s command , , a Great Central Railway ship , was attacked by a German U - Boat . The ship was chased for . With deckhands assisting the stokers , the vessel made when it would normally have been pushed to make . " Wrexham " arrived at Rotterdam with burnt funnels . The Great Eastern Railway presented Fryatt with a gold watch for this feat . The watch was inscribed " Presented to Captain C . A . Fryatt by the Chairman and Directors of the G . E Railway Company as a mark of their appreciation of his courage and skilful seamanship on March 2nd , 1915 " . Later that month he was in charge of " Colchester " when it was unsuccessfully attacked by a U - boat . On 28 March 1915 , as captain of the , he was ordered to stop by when his ship was near the Maas lightvessel . Seeing the U - boat had surfaced in order to torpedo his ship , Fryatt ordered full steam ahead and proceeded to try to ram " U - 33 " , which was forced to crash dive . This action was in compliance with orders issued by Winston Churchill to captains of merchant ships . These orders included treating the crews of U - boats as felons and not as prisoners of war . White flag s were to be ignored . Churchill ' s order also stated that survivors from U - boats might be shot if this was more convenient than taking them prisoner . If a captain were to surrender his ship he would be prosecuted by the British . The Germans became aware of these orders when they found a copy of them upon capturing the in October 1915 . For this second action , Fryatt was awarded a gold watch by the Admiralty . The watch was inscribed " Presented by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to Chas . Algernon Fryatt Master of the S . S . ' Brussels ' in recognition of the example set by that vessel when attacked by a German submarine on March 28th , 1915 . " Fryatt was presented with a certificate on vellum by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty . He was also praised in the House of Commons . Capture . On 25 June 1916 , " Brussels " left Hoek van Holland bound for Harwich . Lights were shown from the beach and a flare was fired . A passenger is reported to have remained on deck and signalled to shore . Five German destroyers surrounded " Brussels " . The passengers were told to prepare to take to the lifeboats and orders were given for official papers to be destroyed , which was done successfully . " Brussels " was taken by the Germans , and the radio was destroyed . She was escorted into Zeebrugge and then to Bruges . Court Martial . Fryatt and his crew were sent to the civilian internment camp at Ruhleben , near Berlin . On 16 July 1916 , it was reported in the Dutch newspaper " De Telegraaf " that Fryatt had been charged with sinking a German submarine . The Germans knew that " U - 33 " had not been sunk . At the time of the trial she was on active service as part of the Constantinople Flotilla . The basis for the charge was the inscriptions on his watches . Fryatt was tried at a Court Martial on 27 July 1916 . The Court Martial was held at Bruges Town Hall . He was found guilty of being a franc - tireur and sentenced to death . The sentence was confirmed by the Kaiser . At 19 : 00 , Fryatt was executed by firing squad and was buried in a small cemetery just outside Bruges that the Germans used for burying Belgian " traitors " . The grave was later visited by diplomat Sir Walter Townley ( British Ambassador to the Netherlands from 1917 to 1919 . ) and his wife . An execution notice was published in Dutch , French and German announcing the death of Fryatt . It was signed by Admiral Ludwig von Schröder . A translation of the execution notice reads as follows : German post - war confirmation of Court Martial . On 2 April 1919 , a German International Law Commission named the " Schücking Commission " , after its chairman Walther Schücking , reconfirmed Fryatt ' s sentence : The Commission ' s ruling was not unanimous . Two members of the legal review panel , Eduard Bernstein and Oskar Cohn , dissented because in their opinion Fryatt ' s sentence had been a severe infringement of international law . Reaction . On 31 July 1916 , British Prime Minister H . H . Asquith issued a statement in the House of Commons . Lord Claud Hamilton , MP , Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway , denounced the execution as " sheer , brutal murder " . The Mayor of Harwich opened a fund to erect a permanent memorial to Fryatt . A similar fund was opened in the Netherlands . In the United States , " The New York Times " denounced the execution as " a deliberate murder " . The " New York Herald " called it " The crowning German atrocity " . In the Netherlands , the " Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant " described the execution as " arbitrary and unjust " , while the " Handelsblad Holland " called it " A cowardly murder inspired by hatred and revenge " . In Switzerland , the " Journal de Genève " said " It is monstrous to maintain that armed forces have a right to murder civilians but that civilians are guilty of a crime in defending themselves " . The Dutch branch of the League of Neutral States presented the Great Eastern Railway a memorial tablet which was erected at Liverpool Street station . The memorial was unveiled on 27 July 1917 , exactly a year after Fryatt ' s execution . The scrap value of " Brussels " was donated towards the cost . The Great Eastern Railway awarded Fryatt ' s widow a pension of £250 per annum . The Government granted her an extra £100 per annum pension on top of her entitlement . Fryatt ' s insurers , the Provident Clerk ' s Association , paid the £300 that Mrs Fryatt was entitled to immediately , dispensing with the usual formalities . The Royal Merchant Seaman ' s Orphanage offered to educate two of Fryatt ' s seven children . The King expressed his indignation and abhorrence at the execution of Fryatt in a letter to Mrs Fryatt . In the letter , he also wrote " The action of Captain Fryatt in defending his ship against the attack of an enemy submarine was a noble instance of the resource and self - reliance so characteristic of his profession . " The incident inspired an Australian film , " The Murder of Captain Fryatt " ( 1917 ) . Funeral and reburial . In 1919 , Fryatt ' s body was exhumed and returned to the United Kingdom for burial . His coffin was landed at Dover , and transported in South Eastern and Chatham Railway PMV No . 132 to London . On 8 July 1919 , his funeral was held at St Paul ' s Cathedral . Hundreds of merchant seamen and widows of merchant seamen and fishermen attended . Representing the Government were many members of the Admiralty , the Board of Trade , the Cabinet and the War Office . The band of the Great Eastern Railway , augmented by drummers from the Royal Marines , played the " Dead March " . " Eternal Father , Strong to Save " and " Abide with Me " were sung , and a blessing given by the Bishop of London . The route of the coffin to Liverpool Street station was lined with people . Fryatt was buried at All Saints ' Church , Upper Dovercourt . His coffin was carried from the station to the church on a gun carriage . His widow was presented with the insignia of the Belgian Order of Leopold that had been posthumously awarded to Fryatt . Fryatt was also posthumously awarded the Belgian Maritime War Cross . Namesakes . A wing at Dovercourt Cottage Hospital - which is now known as the Captain Fryatt Memorial Hospital . - was named in Fryatt ' s honour . A public house in nearby Parkeston is also named in Captain Fryatt ' s honour . In Canada , the high Mount Fryatt ( ) was named in 1921 in honour of Captain Fryatt . The high Brussels Peak ( ) was named in honour of his ship .