Personal information

Husband of Rose Wood, whom he married in 1902 and father of 12 children, of Liscard, Cheshire. George Beattie was steward aboard the British merchant Rutland when the ship was seized by Germany at Hamburg at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. He spent the whole war as prisoner in the camp Ruhleben internment camp near Berlin.

George joined Hertford in 1940 and was on this ship when she was damaged by a mine off Australia in December 1940 and when she was torpedoed and sunk in March 1942. He was suffering from exposure after being rescued from a lifeboat and taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia. After the war his family lived in Wallasey and he continued to serve in the Merchant Navy.