Royal Navy – HMS Dublin
Arthur Edward Comfort was the son of Elijah and Louisa Comfort of 5 Greet Road, Winchcombe.
Elijah Comfort was born in Cheltenham in 1864 and in 1881 worked as a potter, living with his family in Exmouth Street. He had married in 1888 and he and Louisa had five children, of whom Arthur, born 21 February 1892 at Cheltenham, was the eldest.
Elijah worked at Winchcombe Pottery but left when production ceased during the Great War and (according to D N Donaldson) worked as an agricultural labourer until the pottery revived and he returned.
Prior to enlisting on 22 July 1910 as a stoker Arthur was a gardener. Initially he served on HMS King Arthur before being posted to HMS Dublin, a Chatham class light cruiser, on 11 March 1913, upon the ship’s completion. In 1915 she was on service in the Mediterranean, having featured in the Dardanelles campaign and was later at Brindisi. In June 1915 she was damaged by a torpedo from an Austrian submarine and was out of action for some months.
It appears possible that the repairs were undertaken in Belfast and that Arthur Comfort was with his ship when he became ill with pneumonia there at New Year 1916. He died on Saturday, 8 January 1916, in hospital in Belfast, aged 23. From 1 July 1915 to 8 January 1916 Comfort had been Acting Leading Stoker.
He was buried in Winchcombe Cemetery; a newspaper account of his death and funeral appeared on 15 January 1916, under the heading A man o’war’s stoker buried at Winchcombe. Two of his shipmates, Taff and Jim, came to the funeral, as did all the wounded from the Winchcombe hospitals who were well enough to attend. The captain of HMS Dublin and officers from the wardroom sent wreaths and Bandsman Ross of the 8th Royal Berkshires played the Last Post. The vicar, the Rev Eliot, took the service. Arthur Comfort’s grave is marked with a standard CWGC headstone.
At the time of his death his home was stated to be at his parent’s home in Lower Greet, Winchcombe.
Researched by Graham Adams November 2014