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Arthur Laine (1875-1916)


Darlington fitter served in the Royal Navy as chief engine room artificer on HMS Black Prince at the Battle of Jutland


Arthur Laine was born on 20 August 1875 in Darlington. He was the son of John Laine (1833-1919) from Ravensworth, Yorkshire and Elizabeth Laine nee Stabler (1839-) from North Stanley, Yorkshire. The couple had eight children in total, five boys and three girls. Arthur was their youngest son. Their first two children were born in Doncaster, Yorkshire and the rest, including Arthur, were born in Darlington. Arthur and his family lived at 45 Wales Street, Darlington in 1881 and 78 North Road, Darlington in 1891. His father was a foreman engine fitter and Arthur followed in his footsteps becoming a steam engine fitter.

Arthur signed up for 12 years service in the Royal Navy on 10 March 1897 at the age of 21 years old. This is a relatively late age for first entry to the Navy and almost certainly reflects the need for his civilian skills as a fitter and turner. He was given the service number 268973 and the initial rank of engine room artificer 4th class. In the early days of steam-powered warships, an engine room artificer (ERA) was a fitter, turner or boilermaker trained in the maintenance and operation of marine engines. ERAs were the senior maintainers and operators of all warship mechanical plant.

In 1901 Arthur was ERA 3rd class aboard HMS Ramillies a pre-dreadnought battleship in Valetta, Malta. Ramillies was the flagship of the Mediterranean fleet at this time. Between 1902 and 1904 Arthur spent two years at HMS Excellent, a shore based gunnery training school where he was promoted to ERA 2nd class.

Arthur joined the crew of HMS Dreadnought when she first came into service in 1906. This new type of battleship was a step change in naval technology and as a result her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the “dreadnoughts”. She was the first capital ship to be powered by steam turbines which made her the fastest battleship in the world at the time. Arthur spent over four years on Dreadnought and became a chief engine room artificer while serving on her.

Arthur married Mabel Alice Laine nee Snook (1883-1967) in Portsmouth in 1908. She was the daughter of a shipwright from Sheerness, Kent. On 10 March 1909 he signed up for a further ten years service in the Royal Navy to take him up to pensionable age. He left HMS Dreadnought in March 1911 and a note in his service record indicates that he was posted to Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria to work in the dockyards under the overseer for gun mountings. Both Arthur and Mabel were in Barrow at the time of the 1911 census, staying at the Waverley Hotel.

Arthur left Barrow in March 1914 and on 21 April was posted to the crew of HMS Black Prince a Duke of Edinburgh-class armoured cruiser. She was stationed in the Mediterranean when the war began. The ship was sent to the Red Sea in mid-August 1914 to protect troop convoys arriving from India and to search for German merchant ships. Black Prince was transferred to the Grand Fleet in December 1914 and took part in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. During the battle Black Prince was hit by at least twelve heavy shells and several smaller ones sinking within 15 minutes. There were no survivors from Black Prince with Arthur being one of the crew of 857 killed.

Arthur’s body was not recovered for burial. He is honoured on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. He is also remembered on a war memorial at St Patrick’s Church, Patrick Brompton, Yorkshire where his father lived in his retirement.

Arthur Laine was awarded the Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal for his service in World War One.

Civil Parish: Darlington

Birth date: 20-Aug-1875

Death date: 31-May-1916

Armed force/civilian: Navy

Residence: 45 Wales Street, Darlington (1881 census)
78 North Road, Darlington (1891 census)
HMS Ramillies, Valetta, Malta, Mediterranean Sea (1901 census)
Waverley Hotel, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria (1911 census)
60 Alma Road, Sheerness, Kent (1916 CWGC record)

Employment: Steam engine fitter (1891 census)
Fitter and turner (1897 Royal Navy service record)
Chief engine room artificer (Royal Navy record)

Family: Parents: John Laine (1833-1919), Elizabeth Laine nee Stabler (1839)
Siblings: John James Laine, Elizabeth Ann Laine, Emily Laine, Henry Laine, Thomas Laine, William Laine, Charlotte Esther Laine
Wife: Mabel Alice Laine nee Snook (1883-1967)

Military service:

268973
Engine room artificer 4th class, 10 March 1897
Engine room artificer 3rd class, 19 May 1898
Engine room artificer 2nd class, 10 March 1904
Chief engine room artificer , 14 August 1908

Medal(s): Star
Victory Medal
British War Medal

Memorial(s): Portsmouth Naval Memorial
Memorial, St Patrick’s Church, Patrick Brompton, Yorkshire

Gender: Male

Contributed by David D, Stanley, Co Durham

Comments on this story


Comment

Dear Jack

Thank you very much for your post. It's always great hear from descendants and have the link drawn from 100 years ago to the present day.

All the best
Jo
Durham at War Team

Contributed by

Jo Vietzke | Durham County Record Office

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Arthur Laine was my Great Uncle. He was also brother to John James Laine, who was my Grandfather. He had two sisters, Elizabeth and Charlotte. JJ Laine had three sons (my father, his brother Sidney and another brother Percy who died in a shooting accident in his twenties). There were also two sisters, namely Janet and Dora.

Janet married Norman Addy from Leeds, and Dora married Roland Kirby, and they had a few children maybe four.

Sydney Laine married Doris Horsfield, and my father married Marjorie Bunch and had a son John Bunch Laine (myself born 1930).

My father was works manager for the Warrington works of Lancashire Steel Corporation. My mother's father was Charles Edward Bunch. Again he worked in the Warrington works, and later travelled to India and the USA, representing the Iron and Steel Federation.

I qualified as a doctor from Liverpool, and after house jobs went into the Royal Navy for my National Service. Thereafter my professional life has been that of a General Surgeon, initially in Bolton, and latterly in Wrexham.

I married in 1985 a Consultant radiologist Christine Helen Stephenson and we have a daughter, Charlotte.

Contributed by

Jack

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