George Herbert Reardon was born on 29th March 1890 in St Pancras, Middlesex. The second of four children, his parents were tailor Thomas Reardon and his dressmaker wife, Mabel.

When he left school, George worked as an errand boy, presumably for his parents’ business. However, he wanted bigger and better things and, on 6th April 1906, he enlisted in the Royal Navy.

Initially underage, George was given the rank of Boy 2nd Class, and was sent to the training ship HMS Impregnable. After nearly a year there, he was promoted to Boy 1st Class and, on 5th March 1907, was given his first sea-going assignment. Over the following nine months, Boy 2nd Class Reardon served on five ships, the last being the battleship HMS Venerable.

It was while he was assigned to this ship that George came of age, and was formally inducted into the Royal Navy, on a twelve year contract. His service records show that he stood 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall, had brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. He was also noted to have two moles, one on his right upper arm and another on the third finger of his left hand.

The now Ordinary Seaman Reardon remained on HMS Venerable until 1st February 1909, when he was transferred to another battleship, HMS Implacable. He was to spend the next eighteen months on board, and, while there, was promoted again, to Able Seaman.

In September 1910, George came on shore, and was assigned to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham, Kent. This was to be his base for the next few years, and he would return there in between voyages.

Over the next four years, he served on four more vessels – HMS St George, Vindictive, Forte and Ganges. Able Seaman Reardon’s last trip, however, was to be on HMS Arethusa, which he boarded on 11th August 1914, just a week after war had been declared.

The Arethusa was a light cruiser built at HMS Pembroke, and was the lead vessel of the Harwich Force, whose aim was to patrol the North Sea. On 28 August 1914, a fortnight after leaving port, she fought at the Battle of Heligoland Bight, and was seriously damaged by two German cruisers, SMS Frauenlob and Stettin.

Eleven souls were lost in the incident, Able Seaman Reardon among them. He was just 24 years of age.

The extent of the damage to HMS Arethusa meant she had to be towed back to England. Once on dry land, George Herbert Reardon was laid to rest in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, not far from the dockyard at which he had been based.

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