Crew of HMS Defiance. Photo Cyberheritage
Petty Officer Harry Cowling Neiass
HMS Defiance, Royal Navy
Died in hospital
Date of Birth: 1897
Place of Birth: Teignmouth, Devon
Date of Death: 12 December 1917 aged 31, in the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter
Buried: Crediton (Holy Cross) Churchyard; remembered on Seafront Memorial, Teignmouth.
Awarded the Navy General Service Medal with Persia Clasp,
the 1914 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
General Service Medal
Persia Clasp
Petty Officer Harry Cowling Neiass age 31. Born 1897 and baptised at St. Nicholas, Ringmore, on 14 April, the son of Edwin and Ellen Neiass and brother of William (died 1918). In 1901 Harry was living with his widowed mother at 25 Saxe Street and working as an errand boy.
He joined the Royal Navy, service number 218280, in 1904 and the 1911 Census showed him on board ship and at sea. Harry married Edith Balson on 31 July 1915 at Crediton Parish Church and they were living at Hope Cottage, Seaton.
Harry was serving on HMS Warrior and then HMS Defiance when he had an accident which resulted in his discharge from the Navy in July 1917.
He died in December at The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter on 12 December 1917 as reported in The Western Times on Tuesday 18th December 1917.
Harry is buried in Crediton (Holy Cross) Churchyard; remembered on Seafront Memorial, Teignmouth, Devon.
His mother was a widow, as his father Edwin had died at sea in 1892. Harry had a brother William Marshall Neiass DSC who died in September 1918.
Harry first joined the Royal Navy as a "Boy as rated" age 14 a month before his 15th birthday, his first posting being HMS Impregnable. He was only 5'3" at the time of enlisting but grew to 5'7".
He was described as an errand boy with auburn hair, hazel eyes and a fair complexion. In September 1902 he became a "Boy 1st Class" (see "Boy as rated") signing on as an ordinary seaman for twelve years on his eighteenth birthday.
Keith Parsons
Crediton Area History & Museum Society
