Private Donald Gordon Gower
| Date of Birth | c1899 |
|---|---|
| Age at Death | 19 |
| Date of Death | 30th/12/1917 |
| Service Number | 37029 |
| Military Service | Norfolk Regiment |
| Merton Address | 11 Caithness Road, Mitcham, Surrey |
| Local Memorial | St. Barnabas' Church, Mitcham |
Additional Information
Donald Gordon was the fourth child of George Joseph Gower and Maus Marie Berriman. His parents, George, and Maud had married on the 8th of January 1890 at Prittlewell in Essex and resided temporarily with his mother Ann after his marriage.
Donald Gordon was born at Forest Hill in London during the first quarter of 1899 and baptized on the 5th of August 1900 at St Paul’s Church in Ramsgate Kent. Baptismal records in 1893, for his sister Gertrude Maud reveal that their father, George Joseph was employed as a printer.
!901 Census, reveals that forty-five-year-old George was self-employed printer with his 33-year-old wife and his four children resided in the Graveney District of Tooting.
During March1909, fifty-five-year-old George passed away.
0n Census night of 1911, 12-year-old Donald was visiting friends in Marian Road, Mitcham, while his 43-year-old mother lived at 29 Greyhound Terrace close by. The 1911 Census reveals that Maud was now employed as a sick children’s nurse and had been married for a total of 21 years before her husband George had died. Maud and George had 7 children with only 6 of these children surviving to adulthood.
Donald enlisted in the Norfolk Regiment at Kingston on Thames. Donald died at sea when the ship taking him to Alexandria was sunk by a German U-boat outside Alexandria Harbour on the 30th of December 1917.
In 1913 Aragon became Britain's first Defensively-Armed Merchant Ship ("DAMS") of modern times. In the First World War she served as a troop ship, taking part in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. In 1917 a German submarine sank her in the Mediterranean, killing 610 of the personnel aboard