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Victorian Naval Forces Muster

for the Colony of Victoria. (muster range 1853-1910)*

Profile

Last Name:Rayner
First Name:Henry
Rank:Seaman
Birth Date: 31-08-1845
Branch:Victorian Navy

Henry Rayner

Seaman

rayner.jpg

details & photo supplied by Leigh Prideaux
(Henry's great grand daughter)

Henry Rayner was born on August 31st 1845 at Northbourne Kent. He joined the Royal Navy aged 16 and served for 12 years before being discharged September 17th 1873 and being taken on crew of the Northumberland for a round voyage to Melbourne Australia. Back in London he was discharged in February 1874. He married Ellen Cotterell a servant at Windsor Castle February 28th 1874 at Old Windsor Berks and once again signed on the Northumberland for a voyage to Melbourne. Ellen was also on this voyage. The family story is that Henry and Ellen met through Ellen's brother who it was said was one of Henry's RN shipmates. (So far no evidence has been found to support this story)

Henry and Ellen made their home in Melbourne where Henry was a seaman in the Victorian Naval Forces and then worked for the Ordnance Branch of the Victorian Defence Dept. He was then a boatman for the Trade and Customs Dept. By 1895 Henry was an assistant lighthouse keeper and served at Cape Otway, Queenscliff and Warrnambool.

Henry and Ellen had ten children born between 1875 and 1895, the first three at Preston and the next seven at Williamstown a bayside suburb. Their eldest son Charles drowned at Williamstown in 1891.

Sometime in 1905 Henry and Ellen and their younger children moved to Altona a suburb next to Williamstown where they operated a dairy farm in Mount Street.

Henry died in 1929 and Ellen in 1942. Both are buried at Williamstown Cemetery. Three children died young and another Violet died during the influenza epidemic which spread throughout the world at the end of the Great War.

 

Source 


 

See profile in Leading Lights, The Story of Warrnambool Lighthouses & Lighthouse Keepers, by Elizabeth Douglas, Collett, Bain & Gaspars, Warrnambool, 1998


* 1853 is given as the commencement date for the Victorian Navy as this is the year that Commander Lockyer (RN) went to Britain to superintend the building of HMCS Victoria.
Although the Victorian Navy ended in 1901 the career of Cerbeus etc continued. In 1910 the new ships started arriving & manning levels increased.

Information & photographs of men who served in the Victorian Naval Forces is eagerly sought. Please contact the webmaster.
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