George Wells - Able Seaman

On the 29th June 1876 George Wells commenced his service with the Royal Navy at Portsmouth. He was sent to HMS St.Vincent which was a 120 gun ship of the line built in 1815. It was of course obsolete by this time and had been converted into a training ship for boys in 1862 and was permanently moored at Haslar. George was born on 20th May 1861 in Brighton, Sussex. He was 15 years old when he joined the Royal Navy and stood 4' 10" this would rise to 5' 3" when he commenced his adult service three years later. George was described as having brown hair, brown eyes and a sallow complexion. His Service Record notes that he had a "bracelet tattoo on each wrist". He spent nearly two years on St.Vincent and left with his character being described as "Very Good".

In May 1878 George served on HMS Monarch the first British battleship to carry her guns in turrets. The guns themselves had a calibre of 12" which was large for the time but would eventually become commonplace in the early twentieth century. George spent a year on Monarch and passed from being a Boy Sailor to start his adult service rated as Ordinary Seaman. After a short spell on HMS Cruiser, another training ship, he rejoined Monarch in November 1879 and spent the next two years aboard her. His character was described as "Very Good" from 1878 to 1881 when he left Monarch. He managed this despite having spent three days in "the cells" between 22nd December and 26th December 1881 for an unspecified offence.

Between April and December 1882 George served aboard HMS Minotaur. Launched in 1863 the Minotaur was the lead ship of her class. They were the longest single screw warships ever built and had five masts as well as a single steam engine powered by ten boilers. The ship was armed with a mixture of 7" and 9" guns.

HMS Minotaur

HMS Minotaur was dispatched to Egypt in 1882 as part of the British invasion force assembled to put down a nationalist uprising against Tewfik Pasha The Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. An anti-Christian riot in the city of Alexandria saw more than 50 Europeans killed and this led to an ultimatum being issued ordering the nationalists to cease arming and fortifying the town. The ultimatum was ignored and Alexandria was bombarded during the 11 - 13th July by warships of the Royal Navy. HMS Minotaur arrived the day after the fighting off the coast of Alexandria and did not see any action. George Wells received the Egypt Medal with no clasp for his services on board HMS Minotaur during the Egyptian war.

HMS Minotaur - deck gun taken during the 1860's

After a couple of shore postings George was serving on HMS Penelope, which incidentally had taken part in the bombardment of Alexandria, for two years until February 1887. He attended more training at the shore base Excellent which was the Royal Navy's Gunnery School at Portsmouth before spending a year on HMS Kingfisher between February 1888 and February 1889. This year was spent serving out of Zanzibar conducting anti - slavery patrols along the African coast.

Galley Crew - HMS Kingfisher 

 

 

A short stint on the paddle vessel HMS Sphinx followed and then it was back to the Naval Gunnery School at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth in March 1889. It was while he was stationed here that on the 25th July 1889 George Wells fell overboard from a steam launch and drowned at Spithead. His Service Record notes he was "Discharged Dead" on that date.George's character had been rated as "Very Good" for the 13 years he served in the Royal Navy. He received the Egypt and Sudan medal with no clasp and the Khedive's Star which was a medal issued by the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan to all British soldiers and sailors who served in that campaign.

George Wells' Egypt & Sudan Medal dated 1882