The Minor Family of Somerset

Stanley Isaac Hillier, reservist #2083 HMS Britton, Royal Navy R
eserve, joined in 1916 A 19 year old (by dhillier@thezone.net
: see website "Aviation in Newfoundland"
Stanley Hillier is the author of "History of the Church of St. M
ary the Virgin 1849-1963
Newfoundland 1921 Census Lamaline/High Beach
Hillier, Stanley male Head married born 1897 Ja
n age 24 Lamaline
Hillier, Jessie f wife married 189
8 Jul age23 Lamaline
In April 1916, nineteen year old Stanley Isaac Hillier left hi
s hometown of High Bech on Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula, prese
nted himselfon board HMS Briton (formerly Calypso) and dutifull
y enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve as a reservist number 2083
X. Now a "wearer of the blue," he commenced drilling under Newfo
undland's Senior Naval Officer, Commander Anthony McDermott, Roy
al Navy, Drilling was normally completed in twenty-eight Days, h
owever, RNR records sugges that most trainees on HMS Briton in m
id 1916 drilled for shorter periods. Indeed, Stanley Hillier'
s drilling lasted only fiveDays. During that time he fired te
n rounds of ammunition on the rifle and fifteen on the Morris Tu
be, a false barrle or inner tube fitted into the boreof a large
r rifle to decrease its bore size. This practically eliminate
d recoil and allowed the weapon to fire low power ammunition. U
sed primarily for practice, the tube reduced the gun's range an
d therefore danger area, and lowered the cost of ammunition.....
...
On 28 August 1916, Stanley Hillier along with twenty-six fello
w reservists and 240 men of the Newfoundland Regimentboarded th
e passenger liner S.S. Sicilian. At 12.10 P.M. local they the
ysailed past Fort Waldegrave and through the "Narrows" of St. J
ohn's harbour,bound for Devonport, England. Once off the coast
, Sicilian was met by an armed escort and continued her journe
y in a convoy of some thirty ships. Steaming at an average spee
d of eleven knots she arrived at Devonport naval base twelve Day
s later.
At Devonport naval barracks (HMS Vivid) Stanley Hillier starte
d gunnery instruction and early in November 1916 was drafted t
o the battle cruiser HMS New Zealand at Rosyth Naval Base, Scotl
and. One of four shipsto make up the First Battle Cruiser Squa
dron, New Zealand (paid for and donated by the Dominion for whic
h she was named) had by then distinguished herself in such engag
ements as Heligoland. August 1914, Dogger Bank, January 1915,a
nd Jutland, May 1916. Now a member of her eight hundred man com
plement,and to his knowledge the only Newfoundlander on board
, Reservist Hillier routinely sailed from Rosyth and Later Scap
a Flow in the Orkney Islands, waitingfor the German High Seas f
leet to come out after its defeat at Jutland. Onlyafter German
y's surrender in 1918 did the fleet finally reappear.......
Late in February 1918, after sixteen months service on HMS New Z
ealand, StanleyHillier was Granted leave to return to Newfoundl
and. Colonial records indicate that on 9 March he and twenty fe
llow reservists departed Halifax, Nova Scotia, for Port Aux Basq
ues, Newfoundland, where he boarded the Express train for St. Jo
hn's. It is possible that he was among the thirty-five reservis
tswelcomed at the St. John's railway station six Days later b
y the Ladies Reception Committee and Newfoundland Prime Ministe
r William Lloyd.
In May 1918,Stanley Hillier was drafted back to Devonport barra
cks where he completed a gunnery course for armed merchant ships
. From September 1918 to January 1919,he was assigned to HMS P
resident III, accounting base for Definsively ArmedMerchant Shi
p (DAMS) personnel. Now with the sub-rating of seaman gunner, S
tanley Hillier was drafted to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and placed o
n a merchantship. While en route to Montreal for war supplie
s the Armistice was signedand the Great War came to a close. O
n arrival