George Mainprize was the only son of Jane Mainprize, a laundress from West Ayton, near Scarborough. Jane was still at home with her widowed mother in 1891, but was apparently living at 3 Brook Place, a terrace of three properties off Brook Street in the Bootham area of York when George was born on 19 January 1895.

Jane and her infant son soon went back to West Ayton and on 22 November 1896, George and his infant cousin Gordon were taken for baptism to the parish church in nearby Hutton Buscel.

When the census was taken at the end of March 1901 Jane and George were still living with Jane’s widowed mother at 5 Railway Crossing Road, West Ayton; Jane and her mother both earning their living as laundresses. By the time the 1911 census return was made Jane and her mother were still living at the same address in West Ayton but 16 year old George had left school and was one of four servants working for John Turner, a retired solicitor, at “Dunollie”, 31 Filey Road, Scarborough.

It appears that young George wasn’t content to remain a domestic servant, as just three months later he had enlisted in the navy for a period of 12 years. He was issued with service number J12903 and initially served as a ‘Boy 2nd Class’ on HMS Ganges, a shore based training establishment based at Chatham. On enlistment George was recorded as being 5’4⅞” tall with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

On 17 January 1912 he was promoted to ‘Boy 1st Class’ indicating that his skill level was improving as he gained experience. From 12 August that year George served on a seagoing ship, HMS Hindustan, earning promotion to Ordinary Seaman and Able Seaman over the following months.

When he reached the age of eighteen George had grown to 5’5½” in height and had a 34” chest. On 31 January 1914 George was moved to HMS Excellent, a shore establishment based in Portsmouth. He was still on HMS Excellent when war broke out in 1914, by then a seasoned sailor with more than three years experience, and was moved to HMS Prince of Wales on 17 August. This was a London class pre dreadnought battleship which was part of the Channel Fleet at the beginning of WW1.

Prince of Wales was tasked to protect troops being transported to France, patrolling the eastern part of the channel, then transported the Portsmouth Marine Battalion to Belgium before being moved to Sheerness to guard against invasion until the end of the year when it was sent back to Portland.

On 19 March 1915 HMS Prince of Wales was one of four British ships ordered to the Dardanelles  to support the blockade there, setting sail from Portland on 20 March.

The next day 20 year old Able Seaman George Mainprize and 19 year old Able Seaman Charles Winkworth, both experienced sailors, accidentally drowned; neither of their bodies being recovered for burial. Their service records indicate that a Court of Enquiry was held, but not the results of the enquiry.

For his service to his country George earned the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He is remembered with honour on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and is also named on the East And West Ayton Memorial Cross in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist, East Ayton. George was the first of Ayton’s servicemen to die in the Great War.

Though George’s service records, medal roll and Commonwealth War Grave Commission records all document that George drowned, both the naval history website and the Imperial War Museum war memorials register say that his cause of death was illness/disease.

When the census was taken in 1921 George’s mother and her sister Mary, their mother having died in 1916, were still living in West Ayton, earning their living as laundresses. Jane and Mary stayed together throughout their lives and has moved to Scalby by 1939. Both of their deaths were registered in the first quarter of 1946.