George Gilmour Armit

Born around 1887 in the beautiful surroundings of St Andrews on the east coast of Scotland George Armit became an avid sportsman at the local Madras College.
The College took its name from the system of education devised by the school's founder, the Rev Dr Andrew Bell who used to be chaplain to the regiments of the East India Company in Madras. There was a shortage of teachers so he used the older boys, who had been taught the lesson by the master, to instruct groups of younger pupils.

Madras College Rugby 1908-09 Back Row: H Law, C Donaldson, C Mason, A Ritch, H McKenzie, C Morrow, D Fisher, E Cullen Middle Row:C Watt, G G Armit (Captain), J McKenzie (Rector), G Rutherford, D Shaw Front Row:J Auchterlonie, T Morrow

After a University education at St Andrews and Dundee, George became a ships engineer and landed a plum job on the Cunard passenger ship RMS Laconia.

When the Laconia was on the Liverpool to New York/Boston run in 1913/14 he must have been itching for a game of rugby whilst on shore leave and played for Sefton.
He joined the club early in 1913 after being proposed by F.J.Haney.

With the outbreak of WW1 the Laconia was requisitioned by the Royal Navy as a patrol and protection vessel, George being granted a temporary Commission.

HMS Laconia was immediately sent out to the Indian Ocean to stop enemy activity in German East Africa (now Tanzania). He was aboard this ship until June 1916 when it was returned to Cunard, a fortuitous move for him as she was torpedoed by a U-Boat returning from America in February 1917. He was discharged and transferred to the armed merchant cruiser HMS Himalaya and continued patrol and troop carrying to South Africa until December 1917 when he returned to England.

The later stages of the Great War were spent on HMS Bacchante, an Armoured Cruiser operating around Gibraltar.





During the inter-war years George continued his engineering duties with the Cunard ship RMS Aurania on the Liverpool to New York, Quebec, Montreal route.




Once again his ship was requisitioned at the outbreak of WW2 and converted to an Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Artiflex

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Being based in New York in 1941 he transferred to the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve with the rank of Engineer Lt Commander.
For his distinguished service he was promoted to Engineer Commander in January 1945 and later on in the year appointed to the Most Excellent Order.

[HMCS Magnificent www.fleetairarmarchive.net]