John Harry Lloyd and the Princess Irene????

[SueB2015]

Wonder if you can help... I have a chap who survived WW1 and was a PO on various ships until demob in 1919. He has a small Brass Plaque recording the Princess Irene which sank in May 1915. He was not on the Princess so I am wondering how/why he received it......Can anyone enlighten me. His name was John Harry Lloyd. born 28th March 1878. Have Census', Service Record, Marriage Cert etc.

[MaxD]

I fear this might be a guessing game.  The thought occurs that he may well have known one or more of the ship's company or of the many additional POs who were on the ship.  Was he on a minelayer at any time?

maxD

[millymcb]

How big is the plaque and is it attached to anything?

I have seen items made out of the wreckage of ships or from scrapped ships ...bits of wood, carved items, bits of metalwork which were created as memorabilia and sold for charity. 

I also have (somewhere) a tiny brass plaque which is about 3 or 4 cm long with name of a WW1 ship on it which I presumed was at one point attached to a memorabilia item.

Perhaps yours is a similar thing?

Milly

[MaxD]

Thank you for your PM.

The newspaper reports say that in addition to the crew, there were a number of dockyard workers and a party of 50 Petty Officers.  Petty Officers are fairly senior ratings and don't tend to go around in parties of 50 unless they were on some sort of training course. You say that your chap was on the training vessel Actaeon nearby so it could well be that the POs who perished were "his" trainees and it could have been the Actaeon who thought of making some sort of unofficial memento.

maxD