In Norton (St. Mary) Churchyard  is the Commonwealth War Grave of

G.C. Porter
Stoker   RNR.  6585/S
H.M.S. “Wahine”
14th August 1916

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following-
George Clifford Porter was born on 5th March 1890 in Stockton on Tees to parents John and Dora (nee Wilmore).  Father John, originally from Hull, was a boilersmith and they had married in Middlesbrough in 1880.  At the time of his birth George had older siblings Joseph (9), James William (6) and John aged 4.  Living in Moss Street in 1891, ten years later they were at 18 Vicarage Street with the addition Albert (9), Ada (7) and Dora (5).

Aged 20 George was working as a ships’ joiner and a year later on 24th August 1912 he married Maggie Dean, a pottery worker from Norton on Tees, and they set up home at 6 Napier Street in Norton.  They had three children Teresa born 1913, Albert in 1914 and Catherine, who was born after George’s death, in 1917.

George enrolled with the Royal Naval Reserve on 10th February 1915 and after training at the shore base HMS Pembroke at Chatham, became a Stoker on  HMS “Wahine” on 8th October 1915.  The Wahine sailed between Malta and Mudros, the support base for Gallipoli until the evacuation of troops from the area and then returned to England to act as a minelayer in the North Sea.

Stoker Porter was taken ill with pneumonia and on 11th August 1916 was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital, Gillingham, Kent where he died three days later.

George Clifford Porter is remembered at Norton on Tees on N68.02 and at Stockton on Tees in S138.18 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.