The Honourable Peter Willoughby died in one of the early naval actions of the war, the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile, which also claimed the life of another Empingham villager, Frederick James Brown. Peter was the youngest of ten children of Gilbert Henry Heathcote who represented Rutland as an MP in the House of Commons for eleven years before becoming the 1st Earl of Ancaster. Peter married Pamela May and joined the Royal Navy. As a Lieutenant Commander was aboard the armoured cruiser HMS Monmouth when it was part of a squadron destroyed by a superior German force. Monmouth was bombarded by the German armoured cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst and sank with her entire crew. Peter is remembered on Panel 1 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial and also on Empingham's war memorial.