Daniel James Rees – Royal Naval Reserve, H.M. Trawler Briton

Trimmer Daniel James Rees – Royal Naval Reserve, H.M. Trawler Briton

Early Life

Daniel James Rees was the son of William T. Rees, of 58 Pentrechwyth Road, Pentrechwyth, Swansea. Little survives regarding his early years, but by the First World War he was serving with the Royal Naval Reserve, one of many young Welshmen who joined Britain’s naval war effort.

Naval Service

Daniel served as a Trimmer, a demanding role deep in the stokehold of steam‑powered vessels. Trimmers shovelled and managed coal to feed the ship’s boilers and maintain the vessel’s balance—arduous, hot, and often dangerous work. According to the British Army and Navy Birth, Marriage and Death Records, Daniel lost his life on 21 July 1915 following the loss of H.M. Trawler Briton.

H.M. Trawler Briton

H.M. Trawler Briton was a hired Admiralty steam trawler taken into naval service in early 1915 to support the Royal Navy’s Auxiliary Patrol. Like many requisitioned trawlers, Briton performed a range of essential wartime duties. These included sweeping for mines, patrolling coastal waters for enemy submarines, and escorting or guarding vulnerable areas of Britain’s coastline. Operating as Admiralty No. 1170, she served in the hazardous waters off the east coast of Britain, where German minelaying submarines were particularly active.

On 21^st July 1915, Briton met a sudden and devastating end. While operating in the Thames Estuary, near the Longsand Light Vessel, she struck a mine laid by the German submarine UC‑3. The explosion crippled the vessel, and she sank rapidly, leaving no survivors among her eleven‑man crew. These details are consistently recorded in Royal Navy casualty lists and confirmed by multiple local and national memorial sources.

The men lost aboard Briton came from the Royal Naval Reserve, the Royal Navy, and fishing communities along Britain’s east coast. Among those killed were Second Hand Thomas Bullamore, Petty Officer Philip McConnon, Engineman Alexander Greenlaw, and Seaman Albert Victor Ward. Their individual memorial records corroborate the circumstances and date of the sinking. The loss of Briton serves as a stark reminder of the extreme dangers faced by crews of hired trawlers—small, lightly armed vessels operating in mine‑infested waters as part of Britain’s front‑line maritime defence.

Commemoration

Daniel James Rees
Plymouth Naval Memorial, Plymouth
credit - findagrave

As he has no known grave, Trimmer Daniel James Rees is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, which honours Royal Navy and Royal Naval Reserve personnel lost at sea with no recovery possible. His name stands beside those of his shipmates and the many others who served and died in the perilous Auxiliary Patrol during the First World War