People on board

MOLE, George Wright

George Wright Mole was born in Plymouth, Devon to William Mole and Catherine Wright. He was the eldest of their fifteen children, ten of whom were alive in 1911. William Mole was a Soldier in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and at least four of their children were born in India. They were stationed in Wrexham in North Wales on their return where George attended the Victoria British School. In October 1893, at the age of fourteen, he enlisted in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and served with the 1st Battalion. He saw active service in the Boer War and won several awards.

Subsequently William and Catherine lived in West Ham in London where in 1901 William and one of his sons were ‘Labourers in Arsenal’. In August 1905 George married Florence Jones in Wrexham, stating on the marriage certificate that he was a Lance Corporal and giving the Barracks as his address. In November 1907 George and Florence were in Victoria Barracks in Cork where their daughter Catherine Gertrude Minnie was born. In 1911 they were in the Royal Barracks (now Collins Barracks) in Dublin.

The family returned to Wales shortly afterwards and George was employed as a Postman in the village of Bagilt in Flintshire. When the war began he re-enlisted in the Royal Defence Corps as Sergeant and was serving in Ireland in October 1918. Returning home on leave he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October with a large number of other Defence Corps members. He did not survive the sinking nor was his body recovered.

His name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton and on the memorials in Wrexham and Bagilt, as well as on the North Wales Heroes Arch in Bangor.