Leading Seaman Alfred Samuel Baron


Service Royal Navy Service No. 148228
Rank Leading Seaman
Ship:HMS Goliath
Date of Birth: 09/07/1873
Date of Death: 13/05/1915
Memorial: Dawlish Memorial Inscription BARON A.S. Ldg Btm H.M.S.GOLIATH

Service History

Alfred joined the Navy as a boy seaman on 5th March 1889 and signed on for twelve years when he reached his 18th birthday on 9th July 1891. He was rated Able Seaman on 1st April 1894 and Leading Seaman on 2nd June 1900.

He transferred to the Coastguard as a Boatman in March 1901.

Alfred was in service with H M Coastguard, at No 5 Coastguard Station, Fleet, Nr Weymouth, Dorset in 1911 and in June 1914 he was transferred to Dawlish.

Alfred S Baron was called from the Coastguard Service at the outbreak of war and joined H.M.S. GOLIATH with the rank of Leading Seaman (Coastguard).

GOLIATH Provided gunfire support at Cape Helles and was damaged on 25 April and 2 May. On the night of 13 May she was torpedoed by the German-commanded Turkish torpedo boat Muavenet-i-Milet and sank quickly with the loss of 570 men out of a ship's company of 700 men.

Association with Dawlish

Alfred Samuel Baron was the third child of Alfred C Baron (1850- ) and Caroline Baron (nee Tamlyn)(1851- ). His father was a mariner and his mother a milliner and they married in Stoke Damerel Church, Plymouth on 28 September 1869. They had ten children of which nine had survived by 1911.

In 1881 Alfred was living with his mother and four sisters and a brother in Oreston, a waterside suburb of Plymstock.

He served at various Coastguard stations including Dawlish (1903-1906 and 1914).

He married Rhoda Ewings(1879- 1964), daughter of George and Jane Ewings, in Q2 1904 in Dawlish. They had two children.

Devon Roll of Honour
Additional Information Commonwealth War Graves Site


Next of Kin: Mrs Rhoda Baron – widow
Last Known Address: 3 H M Coastguard Station, Dawlish


GOLIATH ship's lifebuoy

H.M.S.GOLIATH

Group of seamen in front of main turret

Naval-History.net

H.M.S.GOLIATH wreck site

Free Birth Marriage Death records

RN Service Record from National Archive, Kew

Refs from subscription sites:

Census entries.

UK Royal Navy and Royal Marines War Graves Roll 1914-1918.