[3] In 1881, Fryatt's family lived at 22 Trinity Terrace, in St Mary's, Southampton,[4] but later relocated to Harwich, Essex where he attended the Corporation School.

[1] On 3 March 1915, Fryatt's command, SS Wrexham, a Great Central Railway ship,[7] was attacked by a German U-boat.

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 2 March 1915.

[8] Seeing the U-boat had surfaced to torpedo his ship, Fryatt ordered full steam ahead and tried to ram U-33, which crash-dived.

Algernon Fryatt Master of the S.S. 'Brussels' in recognition of the example set by that vessel when attacked by a German submarine on 28 March 1915.

On 16 July 1916, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that Fryatt had been charged with sinking a German submarine.

[9] The grave was later visited by diplomat Sir Walter Townley (British Ambassador to the Netherlands from 1917 to 1919[17]) and his wife.

The English captain of a merchant ship, Charles Fryatt, of Southampton, though he did not belong to the armed forces of the enemy, attempted on March 28th, 1915, to destroy a German submarine by running it down.

For this he has been condemned to death by judgment this day of the Field Court Martial of the Naval Corps, and has been executed.

Signed VON SCHRÖDER, Admiral Commandant of the Naval Corps, Bruges, July 27th, 1916.On 2 April 1919, a German international law commission, named the "Schücking Commission" for its chairman Walther Schücking, reconfirmed Fryatt's sentence:[18][19] The execution by firing squad of Captain Charles Fryatt, ordered by the Court Martial of Bruges following judgment in the court-martial proceedings of 27 July 1916, involves no violation of international law.

Two members of the legal review panel, Eduard Bernstein and Oskar Cohn, dissented because in their opinion Fryatt's conviction and execution had been "a serious violation of international law" and "an inexcusable judicial murder".

His Majesty's Government have heard with the utmost indignation of this atrocious crime against the laws of nations and the usages of war.

Coming as it does contemporaneously with the lawless cruelty towards the population of Lille and other occupied districts of France, it shews that the German High Command, under the stress of military defeat, have renewed their policy of terrorism.

The question of what immediate action can be taken is engaging the earnest attention of the Government and I hope very soon to announce to the House of Commons what we can do.Lord Claud Hamilton, MP, Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, denounced the execution as "sheer, brutal murder".

In the Netherlands, the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant described the execution as "arbitrary and unjust", while the Handelsblad Holland termed it "A cowardly murder inspired by hatred and revenge".

[16] The Dutch branch of the League of Neutral States presented the Great Eastern Railway a memorial tablet which was erected at Liverpool Street station.

[1] 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.

In 1919, Fryatt's body was exhumed from the small cemetery near Bruges and returned to the United Kingdom for burial.

[23] Fryatt was one of only three sets of British remains given a state funeral following the end of World War I, the others being the nurse Edith Cavell and The Unknown Warrior.

[24] His coffin was landed at Dover, and transported in South Eastern and Chatham Railway PMV No.132 to London.

[23] The band of the Great Eastern Railway, augmented by drummers from the Royal Marines, played the "Dead March".