Lieut-Commander Royal Navy H.M.S. “Monmouth.” 

Died 01/11/1914 Age 30 PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL. AND PHILIP COLLINS  the eldest of four children of Philip George Collins (sometimes called Robert George) and Susan Kate Breffit, all born in Beckenham between 1882 and 1888 when their parents were either living at 10 or 21 The Avenue. 

HMS Monmouth lost 1 Nov 1914 in the battle of Coronel  

His siblings were Hugh Duppa Collins born 22 June 1884, Helen Dorothy born towards the end of 1885 and Geoffrey Abdy born in 1888. By 1911, the family had moved to  a 16 roomed house in Beckenham Place Park when Hugh was a Lieutenant aboard HMS Glasgow at Portsmouth.

Having entered the service on 15 May 1899. Both Philip and Geoffrey were educated at Rugby and Oxbridge and became solicitors like their father. They were also devoted to the game of hockey with Philip being Vice-President of the Hockey Association and Secretary of the International Board. At the beginning of WWI, both Philip and Geoffrey enlisted in the Rifle Brigade, a battalion of sharpshooters and scouts armed with accurate Baker rifles.

At the same time, their brother, Hugh Duppa Collins, was lost with all hands in the Battle of Coronel off Chile on Sunday 1 November 1914 when serving as Lt Commander aboard HMS Monmouth. It was the worst British naval defeat of WWI. He is remembered on the Plymouth Naval memorial. He left a wife, Elspeth Marion Towers-Clark whom he had married at Freshwater, IoW in 1913 and a daughter, Joycelyn Helen born 1915.

Philip Collins died later on that year on 30 July 1915 with the rank of Captain and Geoffrey survived the whole of the war, leaving with the same rank in 1918 to die in his 99th year.

He remained as keen as ever on hockey which is possibly how he came to marry Joan Mary Ratcliffe in 1936, an international hockey player from Cornwall. A member of the Law Society Council from 1931 to 1956 and its President in 1951, he was awarded a knighthood and became Sir Geoffrey Abdy Collins. He was elected President in 1931