GEORGE SELLEY (1880-1915) (A brief chronology by Gt-Grandson Philip Selley) George Selley was the grandfather to George William, John Nicholson and Eric Selley and was born in Sidmouth, Devon on 30 th August 1880. He was the second son of William Henry SELLEY, a Shoemaker and Blacksmith and Mary Ann DEAN. George s grandfather Henry and great grandfather Thomas Selley were also born in Sidmouth. George was christened on the 1 st October 1880 in Sidmouth and in the 1881 census William Henry, Mary Ann, George and George s older brother Frederick William were living at Temple Street in Sidmouth. George didn t have a middle name unlike his father, mother brother. He gave his children two or three names each. In the 1891 census George was 10 years old and the family was still living in Sidmouth but by then in the area called New Town. Sidmouth George was not found in the 1901 Census because as revealed below he was fighting in the Boer War. His brother Frederick was married and living in Leeds in the 1901 census. His occupation was a Steel Moulder. It is not clear why the two sons left home so early. Their father lived until 1931 and mother until 1929, both into retirement and no evidence of being paupers. Many of their relations were living at or near home at the time. In 1896 at the age of 15 ½ George signed up with the Royal Navy for a 12 year engagement. He signed up to a "Special Service" (SS) engagement by which a man engages to serve in the Royal Navy for seven years followed by five years in the Royal Fleet Reserve. He was first based on the HMS Impregnable, a training ship stationed in Devonport near Plymouth. His first rating was Boy 2nd Class and he was listed as being 5 ft 4 inches tall with black hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. His previous occupation was given as a butcher boy. There were many Selley families in Sidmouth in the mid 1800s. Georges s came from a line of Shoemakers and Tailors. There was a Selley family of butchers and perhaps these were relatives. The HMS Impregnable was an old 121 gun frigate built in 1860 and initially the ship was named the HMS Howe. Furling of sails on the Impregnable at Devonport
Boys joined the navy between the ages of 15 and 16.5. George remained on the Impregnable until September 1897 after which he spent a couple of months at the HMS Vivid Barracks in Plymouth. [now named HMS Drake]. On the 18 th November 1897 George was assigned to his first vessel, HMS Doris. The HMS Doris was an 11-gun twin-screw light cruiser launched at Barrow in 1896. She was 5600 tons and 350 feet in Length. Reefing Topsails on board HMS Impregnable George was promoted to the rank of Ordinary Seaman on his 18 th birthday and was listed now at 5ft 6 inches tall with a sallow complexion. Shortly afterwards the vessel was sent to South Africa and the second Boer War. In 1899 and 1900 the Doris, commanded by Captain Reginald C. Prothero, and flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Harris, played an important part in the Boer War. On 19 th November 19 1899 the Doris contributed to a Naval Brigade of 350 men to the front line and three days later joined General Lord Methuen at Belmont. On 25 th November the Naval Brigade fought at the battle of Graspan. The men paraded at 5 a.m. and after the kopje had been shelled the seamen and marines, led by the flag Captain, advanced on the enemy s position. The Boers opened a heavy fire at 600 yards and soon supplemented it with a cross fire. Nevertheless the brigade advanced steadily by rushes, and in spite of a loss of 15 killed and 79 wounded gained the summit of the kopje, driving the Boers thence in full retreat. So many officers had been killed and wounded, among the latter Flag Captain Prothero, that the command of the Naval Brigade developed upon Captain Alfred Edmund Marchant, R. M. L. I., who was once promoted to the rank of major. Thus, for the first time for many years, a Naval Brigade, composed of both Bluejackets and marines, had the honour of being commanded by an officer of the Royal Marines. A feature of the attack was the bravery of Midshipman Cymbeline Huddart of the Doris, who, though twice hit, courageously pressed forward until mortally wounded.
Her Majesty the late Queen Victoria was pleased to honour the Naval Brigade by telegraphing her congratulations on its gallantry, and Lord Methuen paid it a special visit and complimented it on its splendid behaviour. On 14 th December the Naval guns were in action bombarding the Boer positions at Modder River, and a Naval searchlight worked by Midshipman James Menzies of the Doris got into communication with the beleagured town of Kimberley. In February two 4.7-guns proceeded to the front under Commander William Lowther Grant of the Doris, and subsequently took part in the battle of Paardeberg and the capture of General Cronje. This party assisted in the capture of Bloemfontein, and suffered very severely indeed from enteric fever, no fewer than 89 officers and men being taken ill there. They assisted in the capture of Johannesburg and of Pretoria, and in the subsequent minor operations, turning the guns over to the Royal Artillery, and arriving back on board the Doris on 7 th October 1900. George Selley about 1901 After the battle of Paardeberg General Piet Cronje, his wife, grandson, aide-de-camp, and adjutant were held onboard the flagship Doris for about six weeks, previous to their transportation to the Island of St. Helena. They lived in the Commander-in-Chief s suite of cabins. The dress worn by Mrs. Cronje on arrival was badly stained with picric acid, from the bursting of lyddite shell over the trenches, in which she had lain with a noteworthy gallantry. HMS Doris and other ships in Simons Bay George left the HMS Doris after a 3 ½ year assignment and in May 1901 he and joined another Light Cruiser the HMS Vivid I. Apart for a seven month assignment at the Naval Gunnery training Ship, HMS Cambridge, he remained on the Vivid I until 12 th May 1903.
George s next assignment was on a Special Service Vessel, the HMS Jackal. The Jackal was assigned to be a fisheries protection vessel, she was based in Aberdeen and patrolled the northern North Sea. Aberdeen was where he met his wife Isabella Usher Nicholson. Isabella was born in North shields and was the eldest of six children Fisheries protection vessel The Nicholson family was a seafaring family and Isabella s parents and grandparent s generations were master mariners and Steam Tugboat owners. Her father had come to Aberdeen from North Shields whose occupations were listed a Master Trawl Engineer and commercial fisherman. It is not clear why John Lyall Nicholson and his wife Mary Ann Graham and three children moved to Aberdeen, but the move was between 1889 and 1890. They had three further children in Aberdeen. The family are not found in either the 1891 census of England or Scotland. Isabella s mother, Mary Ann died aged 34 in 1898, whilst John Lyall out lived Isabella and died in Aberdeen in 1942 aged 81. George Selley and Isabella Usher Nicholson were married the Scottish Episcopal Church of St. Andrews, Aberdeen on the 5 th December 1903. George gave his place of residence as HMS Jackal. George and Isabella s first child, Mary Doris Isabella, was born on the 16 th December 1904. George s occupation was given as Seaman, Royal Navy. Unfortunately Mary Doris only survived three months until February 1905. Having completed seven years service George left the Jackal on the 22 nd December 1904, was assigned to the Vivid I for one day before being given his shore discharge into the Naval Reserves or Royal Fleet Reserve for five years as part of his SS engagement.
The naval reserve force (ratings only) in which men on SS engagements spent their 5 years were liable to recall in emergency (with bounty) and to one weekly training every other year. They received a "retainer" while in the Reserve (1/6, 1/3 or 1/- a day according to rating). In 1909 however George re-enrols again for a further five years. HMS Goliath crew Between 1904 and 1907 George and Isabella lived at number 3 Hanover Place, Aberdeen. On the 17 th 1907 March their second child was born in Aberdeen. George was listed as being a Commercial Trawl fisherman and the child s name was John William George Selley. JWG Selley was the father to George William, John Nicholson and Eric Selley. In 1907 the family was living at 27 Castle Terrace, Aberdeen and by the time of their third child George and Isabella had moved one house to 28 Castle Terrace. Their third child Doris Violet was born on the 15 th August 1909 and George was listed as being a Fisherman. Unfortunately Doris Violet only survived three months until 19 th November 1909. The ship HMS Doris must have been special to George as he and Isabella named two of their children Doris. There are no other person named Doris in the Selley or Nicholson families. Only 4days before Doris Violet s death George re-enrolled in the RFR for a further 5 years to start from the 24 th December 1909 which should have completed on 1914. George and Isabella s fourth and last child, Mary Ann Lillian was born 28 th September again in Aberdeen but now at 26 Castle Terrace. She lived until 1984 and married a fisherman Robert Gray. They had at least one son, James Gray a first cousin to George William, John Nicholson and Eric Selley.
HMS Goliath Due to the outbreak of the First World War George was called up on the 2 nd August 1914 and was assigned as an Able Body Seaman aboard the Battleship HMS Goliath. HMS Goliath, was built in 1898 at Chatham and was one of 6 pre-dreadnought 'Canopus' class battleships of 12,950 tons and 410 feet long. She had a complement 682 men with an armament of 4 x 12", 12 x 6", 12 x 12pdr, 6 x 1 pdr, 5 x 18" torpedo tubes. The Goliath was designed for the China Station with a shallow enough draught to allow her to use the Suez Canal. In 1900, the ship was sent to China, she remained there until 1903. She served in Mediterranean Fleet, Channel Fleet and Fourth Fleet until she was mothballed in 1913.During World War I, on August 1914 she joined the battle squadron operating out of Devonport and was later sent to Loch Ewe to defend the Grand Fleet anchorage. Her complement was drawn from the called up Naval Reserve which included George Selley. The Royal Naval Reservists, had received urgent instructions to report to their depots immediately, and Sunday, 2 nd August, 1914 the Goliath witnessed the arrival of 85 men, mostly taken at a moment's notice from their employment on steamers, fishing vessels, and pleasure yachts. In September 1914, Goliath was dispatched to the East Indies for escort duty against German warships in the area and in November 1914 she took part in the blockade operation against the SMS Konigsberg in the Rufiji River. In April 1915 she was transferred to the Dardanelles, to support the ill-considered and ill-fated landings around Cape Helles. She was damaged by Turkish Gunfire on 25th April and 2nd May. On the night of the 13th May 1915 while stationed in Morto Bay off Cape Helles HMS Goliath was torpedoed by the Turkish Motor torpedo boat / destroyer Muvanet-i-Milet which was being manned by a German crew at the time. Goliath had been providing gunfire support to the Allied invasion of Gallipoli and was anchored in the Dardanelles off De Tott's Battery along
with another old British battleship. The Turkish ship, by keeping close to the cliffs on the European side of the Dardanelles managed to slip past the patrolling British destroyers Bulldog and Beagle. At about 1.15 am the Turkish ship was spotted by Goliath and challenged but before Goliath could open fire she was hit by two torpedoes, one hit abreast the forward turret and the other abreast the foremost funnel. Goliath rapidly developed a severe list to port before being hit by a third torpedo near her rear turret. The Turkish ship escaped into the darkness. Goliath sank quickly with the loss of 570 crew. The wreck of Goliath now lies in position 40 02' 22"N, 26 12' 23"E, very broken up and largely salvaged. Isabella,, John William George and George Selley about 1912 Isabella and her two surviving children, John William George and Mary Ann Lillian moved to North Shields, presumably back to Nicholson relatives in 1915. Isabella s father though remained in Aberdeen until his death in 1942. There were strong family connections between Aberdeen and North Shields as Mary Ann Lilian Selley returned to and married in Aberdeen when she grew up, and Isabella Selley died in Aberdeen whilst living in North Shields.
George Selley is listed in the Commonwealth War graves Commission with the following reference: "Able Seaman, 188825, (RFR/DEV/B/818). R.N. H.M.S. "Goliath.", Royal Navy who died on Thursday, 13th May 1915. Age 34. Son of William Henry and Mary Ann Selley, of High St., Sidmouth, Devon; husband of Bella Selley, of 10, Laet St., North Shields.". Commemorative Information Memorial: PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, Devon, United Kingdom, Grave Reference/ Panel Number: 6 There is also a memorial to George Selley at the Parish Church in Sidmouth.