Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of John Thomas Faulks, a general carter, born 1864 in Loughborough, Leics., and his wife Ellen Allwood Faulks (nee Simmons, married q4 1884 in the Loughborough, Leics. district.), born 1864 in Loughborough, Leics. Philip Albert was born on the 5th June 1897 in Loughborough, Leics., his siblings were, George Archibald, born 1892, Lydia, born 1895 and Ada, born 1900, all his siblings were born in Loughborough, Leics., in March 1901 the family home was at 3, Factory Street, Loughborough, Leics. In the 2nd quarter of 1908, Philips mother died, aged 44. In April 1911 Philip was employed as an errand boy and was residing in the family home at 3, Russell Street, Loughborough, Leics., together with his widowed father, a Borough Council labourer, and his siblings, William, a coal carter, born 1885 in Loughborough, Leics., Lydia and Ada, a schoolgirl. Philip enlisted into the Royal Navy to serve an engagement of 12 years on the 18th September 1913, his reckonable service to commence on the 5th June 1915, he was allocated the service number J/27543 in Portsmouth, Hants. His medical examination recorded that he was 5 foot 3¾ inches in height and had a chest measurement of 33¼ inches, his hair colour was brown and he had blue eyes, his complexion was described as fresh, it was noted that he had a scar on the back of his right hand and right ring finger, he gave his trade or calling as blacksmith’s boy. His record of service began when he joined HMS Ganges as a Boy 2nd Class on the 18/9/13 – 13/4/14, when he was promoted to Boy 1st Class. HMS Ganges, 14/4/14 – 14/4/14. HMS Hawke, 15/4/14 – 15/10/14, when he was lost at sea when his vessel was sunk by a German torpedo. The circumstances in which Philip lost his life are as follows. In October 1914, the 10th Cruiser Squadron was deployed further south in the North Sea as part of efforts to stop German warships from attacking a troop convoy from Canada. On 15 October, the squadron was on patrol off Aberdeen, deployed in line abreast at intervals of about 10 miles. HMS Hawke stopped at 9.30 am to pick up mail from sister ship HMS Endymion. After recovering her boat with the mail, HMS Hawke proceeded at 13 knots (15 mph) without zig-zagging to regain her station, and was out of sight of the rest of the Squadron when at 10.30 am a single torpedo from the German submarine U - 9 (which had sunk three British cruisers on 22nd September), struck HMS Hawke, which quickly capsized. The remainder of the squadron only realised anything was amiss, when, after a further, unsuccessful attack on HMS Thesus, the squadron was ordered to retreat at high speed to the northwest, and no response to the order was received from HMS Hawke. The destroyer HMS Swift was dispatched from Scapa Flow to search for HMS Hawke and found a raft carrying one officer and twenty one men, while a boat with a further forty nine survivors was rescued by a Norwegian steamer. 524 officers and men died, including the ship's captain, Hugh P. E. T. Williams, with only 70 survivors, one man died of his wounds on 16th October.