Search our records : Frederick George Harner

Frederick Harner was born in Beer on 30^th March 1890, the third son of George Harner, a blacksmith.  At the time of the 1911 census the family lived at 2 Rose Cottages, Clapps Lane, and Frederick’s occupation was given as boot repairer.

He joined the Royal Navy at Devonport (HMS Vivid) on 13^th April 1916, as a Stoker 2^nd Class.  His RN record describes him as 5ft 7ins tall, with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

On 4^th June 1916 he joined HMS Ajax, a King George V class battleship with a crew of 900.  The ship, which was part of the Grand Fleet, had been in action at the battle of Jutland only days before.  He left Ajax on 6^th October 1916 and joined HMS Fearless at Scapa Flow.  Fearless, on which he was to spend the remainder of his service, was a Boadicea class cruiser with a crew of 405. 

On 13^th October, only a week after Frederick had joined Fearless, his ship was sent on a special mission to northern Russia, in company with three submarines (G2, G4 and G6).  Based at Port Romanoff (later re-named Murmansk), Fearless acted as support ship to the three submarines as they carried out patrols in the White Sea.  The little force remained in Russia for a month, before sailing to Kirkwall in the Orkneys, and then to Cromarty.  After a short period based at Cromarty, Fearless moved to Scapa Flow in December 1916, and was based there until 15^th July 1917.

On 1^st February 1917 Frederick was promoted to Stoker 1^st Class, and throughout his service his annual assessments described his ability as ‘superior’.

Frederick was discharged from the Royal Navy on 27^th February 1919.