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Roll of Honour

Hartlepool seafarers lost at sea

Moore, Frank

Stoker
94, Frederic Street, Hartlepool
Hartlepool
1887
31/5/1916

Lost on the Armoured Cruiser HMS Defence

Frank Moore was born in September, 1887, son of Hartlepool shipyard worker Ralph Moore and his wife Mary Jane. He was one of seven siblings, from an original eleven, to survive childhood. His early years were spent in Pout's Court, just off the High Street, and in 1903 young Frank began a five-year apprenticeship as a painter and decorator to Christopher and James Smyth.

Frank married Emily McCabe in 1910. They had three children - Emily in 1910, Mary in 1912, and Francis junior in 1914. Francis would later go on to serve in the Royal Navy. The family were living in one room at 94 Frederic Street, Hartlepool at the time of the 1911 census, and Emily was still there when she received notice of Frank's death at sea five years later.

At least two of Frank’s siblings also served in the Armed Forces during the Great War, including younger brother Robert - who had joined the Royal Naval Reserve as a youngster. Their brother Ralph, however, opted for the army - serving first with Durham Light Infantry then in the Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action at Salonika, Greece, in 1916.

Frank was a member of the Royal Naval Reserve along with Robert and, when war broke out he was called up for service. By 1916 he was a stoker aboard HMS Defence, a Minotaur-class armoured cruiser, built in 1907. The Defence was stationed in the Mediterranean in 1914, but transferred to the Grand Fleet in January 1915. At the Battle of Jutland on May 31st, 1916, she was the flagship of the First Cruiser Squadron, but was engaged and sunk by German battleships, with the loss of over 900 men, including Frank.

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