No known grave for Captain Back
Maxstoke churchyard has a simple cross (second left) which records the loss of Captain Eric Back, RN, of HMS Natal, his wife and nearly 400 crew and civilians when the ship blew up and sank.
His father was Maxstoke vicar, the Rev Samuel Back (far right).
Captain Back left a Warwickshire country vicarage for what is now a Grade 2 listed building on a private estate while serving at Devonport. He is remembered on a panel of the Chatham Naval Memorial to the thousands of sailors who have no known grave.
On the wall by the road are recorded the names of six men from Maxstoke who also died in WW1: Alfred Antrobus, Albert Ashby, Joseph Brookes, William Goode and John Lyner.