The Hungry Hundred

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The young, but talented Lieutenant James Stanley Murray is tasked with training a class of Royal Navy Reserves, sea-men affectionately nicknamed the “Hungry Hundred”.

Rather than rushing out amongst the new recruits to pick himself a class, the Lieutenant, waits until only the stragglers are left, fancying himself a challenge.

Amongst his motley band of the “Hungry Hundred” are sixteen of the Royal Navy’s finest deserters and scallywags.

The Lieutenant sees in them ‘red, raw, primitive men’, ‘who loved the clash of battle’, they are ‘sea-warriors’ who had returned to the Navy to fight for King and Country.

These rough men answer to no master, but the Lieutenant’s kind hand and strong leadership evoke in them a natural love and affection for their ‘Jimmy’ and an undying loyalty.

Under the tutelage of Jimmy and given the skill and savvy of his “Hungry Hundred” the class excel. When James receives his posting, he sweet talks the Drafting Commander into letting him take his ‘pet’ sixteen with him.

On their first posting together, the team demonstrate their exceptionalism and their bonds of affection and loyalty to one another are strengthened. Jimmy feels as if he is not only their commanding officer, but a younger brother striving to enter ‘the Lodge of Men, to which they belong’.

Against all odds, the men arrange to follow their commander to his next posting, aboard the Torpedo Boat Destroyer Stilletto, it is on this ship that the sixteen receive their baptism of fire and their bonds of brotherhood are truly tested.

The Hungry Hundred is captivating and well crafted, but also offers a glimpse into the contemporary agenda and a rare, dated perspective on war that is nonetheless fascinating.

John S. Margerison was born Joseph Margerison in 1887, to a shoemaker in Derby. As a boy of fourteen he ran away to join the Royal Navy, marrying in 1907 and receiving medals for gallantry in 1912. He was invalided out of the service in 1913 and by the time WWI broke out he was writing prolifically and to critical acclaim. He wrote several enthusiastic stories about life at sea, and during the war, he wrote a series of articles about joining the Navy (‘Come to Sea My Lads’ and ‘Under the Red Ensign’) for boys’ papers during the war. Margerison died in a motorcycle accident in 1925, aged only 37.