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J/13954 HMS Aboukir, Royal Navy
Harry Mumford was born in Great Cornard on 5 May 1894, one of nine surviving children of William and Ellen Mumford. His father was employed as a mat maker and the family lived at Sudbury Road in Great Cornard. By 1911 the family had moved to 30 Girling Street, Sudbury and Harry was employed by a local farmer working with horses. The family later moved to 81 Queens Road.
Harry joined the Royal Navy in September 1911 as a boy sailor training onboard HMS Ganges, the training ship based at Shotley in Suffolk. He joined HMS Aboukir, a Cressy Class Armoured Cruiser on 1 August 1914. The ship was torpedoed by the German submarine U9 in the North Sea on 22 September 1914 along with HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue (the ship Harry had served on after his training). A report in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press on 7 October 1914 lists AB H. Mumford as ‘Missing’, ‘Same family as the unfortunate man who lost his life on Saturday at St. Bartholomew’s while brushing walnuts’, (the report doesn’t state what the exact relationship was).
Harry died age 20 on 22 September 1914. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid at Chatham Naval Memorial in October 2006.
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