GILES Mornington George

Appears in the Worcester/Worcestershire Roll of Honour Book for navy casualties located in Worcester Cathedral.

Mornington Giles was born on the 19th July 1899 in Hereford, one of four children of Albert and Jane Giles. He was enrolled at Wyche School, Malvern on 17th October 1910 having previously attended a school in Wiltshire. He left school on 1st December 1913. In 1911 the family consisting of Albert, Jane and their 3 surviving children, Mornington aged 11, Philip aged 8 and Ivor aged 7 lived at Radnor Cottage, Hurlstone Road, Malvern.

Mornington enlisted in the Royal Navy as Boy 2nd Class on 20th April 1915 intending to enlist for a period of 12 years on his 18th birthday – 19th July 1917. At the time of his enlistment in 1915 he was 5 feet 0½ inches tall with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He served on HMS Impregnable until 26th August 1915, rising to Boy 1st Class on 20th July 1915. He transferred to HMS Queen Mary on 27th August 1915.

HMS Queen Mary was a Lion Class Battle Cruiser. Built in 1913 for speed and long range, she displaced 26500 tons with a main armament of 8 x 13.5 inch guns and 16 x 4 inch guns. On 31st May 1916 she was part of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron under Vice Admiral Beatty who engaged the German battlecruiser group of Vice Admiral Franz Hipper. During this battle HMS Queen Mary was hit and blew up with a loss of 1,266 men. There were only 9 survivors. The loss of the Queen Mary was the greatest single British naval loss of the First World War.

The death of Mornington Giles was reported in Berrows Worcester Journal on 10th June 1916 with a further mention in the Journal of 17th June 1916:
Mornington Giles was the son of Mr H. Giles, of Radnor Cottage, College Garden, Malvern, and had not attained his 17th birthday. He joined in April, 1915, on the very first day that he was considered old enough. It had always been his desire to be in the Navy. He was one of Malvern’s youngest bluejackets. He had been in action twice before the great naval battle, when he went down with the Queen Mary. His father says: “We are very proud of him to die such a glorious death in such a glorious victory.”

Malvern News 10th June 1916:
Mornington George Giles, the eldest son of Mr and Mrs J H Giles, Radnor Cottage lost his life on HMS Queen Mary, he was a Boy 1st Class. Before joining the Navy in April 1915 he was employed at No 9 House, The College. He was an old boy of the Wyche.

A photograph of 1st Class Boy M.G. Giles of Malvern can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 17th June 1916, available at Worcestershire Archives.

Mornington Giles has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on Plymouth Naval Memorial.