Mercantile Marine Reserve – HMS Morea
George Henry William Arnold was born at Chepstow in the fourth quarter of 1901. He was the youngest of five children born to blacksmith George Arnold and his wife Mary Ann E (née Lyes; born at Brockworth), whom he had married at Chepstow in 1889.
At the time of the 1901 Census the couple lived at 2 Priory Cottages, Chepstow. George (senior) died in 1902, aged 38 and in 1904 Mary Arnold married Frederick Howitt (at Chepstow) and at the time of the 1911 Census the family was living at 52 Cecil Road, Gloucester. Frederick Howitt was the head of a household with five step-children and three which Mary had borne him.
George (junior) would have been 13 at the outbreak of war and it seems unlikely that he joined the Mercantile Marine Reserve until at least 1917. There is scant detail of his service with them, other than the CWGC Register states that he served with HMS Morea. This ship was a former P&O passenger liner, which had been converted into a hospital ship and after March 1916 served as a troopship before being fitted out with seven 6 inch guns in July 1917 to serve on Atlantic convoy protection duty until the cessation of hostilities. A Trimmer was a form of Stoker, whose job it was to work to maintain levels of coal in a ship’s bunkers.
Evidently George died of disease, at home, 52 Cecil Road, Gloucester on 1 March 1919, age 18. He is buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a CWGC headstone marks the grave.
Researched by Graham Adams 8 December 2015