Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada The Sinking of the HMS Goliath - the Battle of Gallipoli

This short video is narrated by an Irish fellow. It tells a brief story of the Goliath and the 85 Irish volunteers that served. My great grandfather was Cornish, not Irish. Born in Penzance, and worked in a stone quarry before the war broke out.

In the same 1911 census referred to in this video, my grandfather was listed as a labourer. He had a wife, Sarah, and four children - Laura (14), Mary (11), William Jr. (9) and my grandfather, George, who was 5. My grandfather died in 1943 at 37, on my mother's 5th birthday, from a burst appendix.

Laura, the oldest daughter, was listed as a "general servant". Like many children of the day, she was working, but lived at home. One out of every seven employed persons was a domestic servant, according to the census. My mother was named after her.

According to the Victorian author Mrs Beeton, in The Book of Household Management, the "maid of all work" was to be pitied.

"The general servant or maid of all work is perhaps the only one of her class deserving of commiseration. Her life is a solitary one and in some places her work is never done."

That seems sad.