Died
28/29 October 1915
Aged 23
Born
1892
Sources
Place
Walks
Matthew Porter
Lance Corporal
CWGC: Lance Corporal Matthew Porter (P/1760) died 28 October 1915. Member of the Military Foot Police, Military Police Corps. Commemorated on Helles Memorial. Son of Joseph and Margaret Porter, of The Farmers Arms, Baycliffe, Ulverston, Lancs.
Was on M.S. (HMS) Hythe.
Matthew’s name is on the War Memorial plaque inside the church.
IN
AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF
JOSEPH PORTER
DIED 26TH DEC. 1928, AGED 73 YEARS
ALSO MARGARET, HIS WIFE
DIED 30TH APRIL 1940, AGED 78 YEARS
ALSO MATTHEW, THEIR SON
DROWNED ON ACTIVE SERVICE 29TH
OCTOBER 1915, AGED 23 YEARS.
On 28 October 1915, the troopship HMS Hythe was sunk approaching the Dardanelles. HMS Sarnia, another troopship steaming away from shore after disembarking her troops, collided with the Hythe, which went down in ten minutes. The Hythe was sailing without lights in order to avoid detection by Turkish batteries on the shore. There were 275 men on board including crew, and 154 of them drowned. 129 of these were men of the 1st/3rd Kent Field Company, Royal Engineers, from Tunbridge Wells, Southborough, and the surrounding region. Twenty-four of them are named on Southborough War Memorial. Source.
The Barrow News 22 January 1916 had the following:
LOCAL ROLL OF HONOUR
BAYCLIFFE MAN DROWNED AT GALLIPOLI
The above is a photo of the late Lance-Corporal Matthew Porter, of the Military Foot Police, who was drowned aboard H.M.S. Hythe, whilst minesweeping off the Gallipoli Peninsula, owing to the collision of his vessel with another minesweeper.
The deceased, who was a son of Mr. And Mrs. Joseph Porter, of the Farmer’s Arms, Baycliffe, and a native of that village was, at the time of the outbreak of war, serving in the Lancashire County Police Force in the Church Division (See below), and joined the Military Foot Police attached to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. He was a very fine, promising and steady young fellow, and much sympathy is expressed with the parents and the deceased’s brothers and sisters in the loss they have sustained.
The Church Division included Accrington, Church, Clayton-le-Moors, Clitheroe, Great Harwood, Oswaldtwistle, Rishton, and Whalley sections. (RMW)
1901 Census
At the time of the 1901 Census (from Ancestry) living at the Farmer’s Arms, Baycliff, were Joseph Porter (46), Limestone Quarryman, born Aldingham, Lancs; Margaret Porter (39) born Ravenglass, Cumberland; Agnes E(?) Porter (17), General domestic servant; Joseph Porter (15), fisherboy; Margaret Porter (13); Sarah Porter (11); Matthew Porter (9); Hannah B. Porter (6); Mary Porter (4); George Porter (2 months); all born Aldingham; Thomas Shaw (28), Limestone Quarryman, born Aldingham.
1911 Census
By the time of the 1911 Census, Matthew Porter (19) was a farm labourer at the Edmondson family farm, Goadsbarrow, Roosebeck.
The Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects puts Matthew’s place of death as ‘between Mudros and Helles’.
