Person    | Male  Born 5/12/1904  Died 14/11/1942

Arthur Alfred Griffin was born on 5 December 1904, one of the eleven children of George James Griffin (1859-1921) and Sarah Ann Griffin née Steel (1868-1951). His birth was registered in the 4th quarter of 1904 in the Portsmouth Registration District, Hampshire. On 4 January 1905 he was baptised in The Parish Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, 70-72 The Street, Rustington, Sussex (now West Sussex), where in the baptismal register it shows his family living in Portsmouth and that his father was a navy pensioner. The register gives his date of birth incorrectly as 6 December 1904.

In the April 1911 census he was shown as Alfred Griffin, aged 6 years and at school, living in a five roomed property at 64 Middlesex Street, Portsmouth, together with his parents and four of his siblings: Hyacinth Mildred Griffin (1898-1915) at school; Elsie Alice Griffin (1902-1966) at school; Edmund Stanley Griffin (1903-1913) at school and John Griffin (1910-1969). His father was shown as a naval pensioner and that his mother had given birth to eleven children of which eight were still alive. 

He married Winifred Margaret Wise (1911-2004) in the 3rd quarter of 1933 in the Richmond Registration District, Surrey. The 1939 England and Wales Register shows him living with his wife at 63 Manor Road, Richmond and listed him as a GPO mail sorter and confirmed his date of birth as 5 December 1904.

He joined the Royal Navy and served on H.M.S. Malaya, a Queen Elizabeth class battleship, service number P/JX269136. Naval Registers of Death and Injuries confusingly show that he died on 13 November 1942, aged 37 years, following injuries sustained in an accidental fall in H.M. Dockyard Rosyth, Fife, Scotland.  His body was buried in Block B.B., Grave 85, at the Richmond Cemetery, Grove Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6HP.

Probate records confirm that his address had been 63 Manor Road, Richmond and that he died on war service on 14 November 1942. Administration of his estate was granted to his widow on 24 February 1943 and his effects totalled £342-3s-4d.

Postal Service records show that he had been employed by the General Post Office on 3 June 1937 as a temporary postman at £2-14s-0d per week and was made a temporary porter on 14 July 1937 at the same rate of pay. He was promoted to mail porter on 25 October 1938 on a pay scale of £2-7s-0d to £3-8s-6d per week. His naval service began on 19 May 1941 and that he died on 14 November 1942 suffering from a cerebral haemorrhage and a fractured skull. His widow was awarded a gratuity of £178-2s-2d on 14 April 1943 followed by a bonus payment of £20-18s-0d on 20 January 1945.

He is shown as 'GRIFFIN  A.A.' on the Western Postal District war memorial at Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website (which also shows his date of death as 13 November 1942) and on page 104 of the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance's Book of Remembrance 1939-1949.

We have opted to use the date of death as 14 November 1942 rather than 13 November 1942, but concede this may not be correct.

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