Back to the Retreat from St. Quentin
Conclusion
John George Brew had been a well respected man. Previous to his military service, he had spent many years at sea. Beginning as a Seaman in 1893, John George studied and passed his exams, and succeeded in obtaining his 2nd Mate's, 1st Mate's and finally Master's Certificates of Competency.
While 2nd Mate on board the steamship Torr Head in 1902, he helped rescue the 20 crew of the German sailing ship Helene, which was sinking after having taken water during a hurricane in the mid-Atlantic. For his bravery, he received a medal and certificate from Germany, as well as binoculars in a wooden case from the Kaiser with an inscription from him on it's lid. It is ironic to think that it was the Kaiser's soldiers which were to end his life 16 years later.
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Clicking on the image to the left will show an enlarged version of the medal John George received in 1902 for rescuing the crew of the German ship Helene. On another occasion, believed to be in 1906, John rescued another man's life when he dived from the deck of Rathlin Head in Cardiff as she was embarking, when one of the crowd which had gathered to see her off fell from the pier. |
These acts of bravery, his attainment of his Master's Certificate of Competency and rise through the ranks of the Army to become a Major are all the more admirable when one considers his humble youth.
Born in Gateshead-on-Tyne on 14 December 1876, John George was the third son of John George Brew and Jane Isabella Chater. Though there were to be seven children, he was one of only three to survive infancy. His father, a marine engineer, was for away at sea for most of John George junior's childhood. The family would only see him for a short time every few months; for the rest of the time the family lived on what little it had. On one period of leave, his father came home to bury one child, witness the birth of another, and bury it too before he rejoined the ship for his next voyage. Doubtless, the family lived in virtual poverty and this is confirmed by the fact that John George's siblings' causes of death resulted from a poor diet and diet related problems. Later pictures of John George, however, show a healthy man who seems not to have suffered health-wise from the poor nutrition of his childhood.
It was, however, nonetheless a sad childhood; in October 1886, at the age of 9, his father died at sea in a storm. His younger brother Albert was 5 and his mother was pregnant with the seventh child, Leonard Septimus, who was born about 20 weeks later. Although virtually nothing is known about the ensuing years, we assume John George's education, and that of brother Albert, would have been cut short by the necessity of finding work to replace the loss of income caused by their father's death. During this time, the little family moved to South Shields and stories have been passed down through the family of arguments and unhappiness in the home.
In 1893, John George went to sea for the first time as the most junior of ratings on the barque Charles Cotesworth, followed by brother Albert who sailed for the first time on the steamer Phosphor some four years later, in April 1897.
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Click on the image to the right to see an enlarged version of a photograph of John George in his uniform as 2nd Mate on S.S. Torr Head, ca.1902. Both away at sea on separate voyages, they were oblivious to their mother's illness and suffering, and she died at home on 25 September 1897, aged just 42. John George arrived back in Newcastle around 2 months later, though still before his brother, to find his mother buried and 10 year old Leonard shipped off to relatives in Liverpool. It must have been a sad John George who waited on the Newcastle docks for Albert's return. |
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The two young men, 21 and 18 respectively, were forced to come to terms with this sudden change in circumstances. As if losing their father in their childhood was not enough, their mother was now also gone. They stood at a crossroad in their lives and needed to make some decisions about the future. Poverty, lack of education, unhappiness, and death had marked their lives in Newcastle. In a move that may seem blasé to the observer, they promptly went back to sea. Possibly it was because this was the thing they knew best; perhaps it was because life with the crew offered what family life had not - a sense of belonging, of being needed and appreciated, and probably a measure of happiness. John George departed Newcastle for the open sea in the closing days of December 1897 and Albert followed him barely a month later.
Within a short period, John George had joined the company G. Heyn & Sons of Belfast, Managers of the 'Head Line' of ships, where he served on the steamships Rathlin Head, Torr Head, and Teelin Head.
He moved to Ireland and soon fell in love with Annie Moffat Clow, whom he married on 19 April 1905. Annie was the daughter of Portadown businessman and later councillor, William Clow. One of the witnesses to the wedding was Leonard Brew, John George's youngest brother, who, at the age of 18, was an apprentice engine fitter in Liverpool. Brother Albert, now Master of Wavertree, was in the mid-Pacific Ocean on his way from Newcastle, N.S.W., to Mollendo, Peru.
John and Annie's first child, William, died of scarlet fever at the age of 7. Their second child, son John Kenneth, was born in Portadown on 17 January 1909. A daughter, Winifred Marion, followed almost 3 years later, born on 3 September 1911, also in Portadown.
Ironically, when John George was killed in France in 1918, his children John and Winifred were the same ages as he and his brother Albert were when their own father died in 1886.
[Except for the births of John George's children, what occurred in the years between 1908 and 1914, and the reason John George left the sea, are unknown and still to be followed up.]
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