General Discussion

News about the next opportunity to join in remembrance of a Dawlish serviceman that lost his life during World War One.

Leading Seaman Alfred Baron will be remembered on Wednesday 13th May 2015

at the Methodist Church, commencing at 1pm

Alfred Baron was originally from Plymouth, and is known to have signed up with the Navy at the age of just 15.  He moved to the Coastguard service, and served at Dawlish from 1903-1906 and in 1914.  He and his family were living at Coastguard Cottages when the war broke out.

He 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 went to the Dardanelles in April 1915 and provided gunfire support at Cape Helles. 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.

Alfred Baron died aged 41, and left behind a widow and a son aged 10.  Rhoda Baron died in 1964, having been a widow for almost 50 years.