Born in Marylebone, Middlesex, to Judith Manley (née Devereux) and John Manley on 20 January 1873, Arthur Manley was one of three siblings along with brother, John, and sister, Louisa.

Arthur was already serving in the Royal Navy as a Boy Seaman in HMS IMPREGNABLE, probably from the age of 15 years before “signing on” to serve for a further 12 years of continuous service on 20 January 1891, his eighteenth birthday. Arthur served in various surface ships, HMS BASILISK, HMS CORMORANT and HMS RUPERT, as an Ordinary Seaman, and progressed through the various higher rates of Able Seaman and Leading Seaman until promoted to Petty Officer 2^nd Class on 2 July 1897, all in the last decade of the 19^th Century and while sailing the oceans of the world from the North Sea, through the Straits of Gibraltar and may have travelled as far as the South Atlantic gaining experience as a Seaman in the Royal Navy.

The years of 1899 to 1903 appear to have brought great changes to both Arthur’s personal and professional lives.

Arthur Manley married Flora Edith Manley (née Simms) in the second half of 1901. They soon had a son, Arthur in the 3^rd Quarter of 1902 and a second, Jack, in the 3^rd Quarter of 1903.

Professionally, between 1899 and 1903, he retrained to become both a specialist in torpedoes and a submariner, whilst in the Portsmouth area.

It appears that Petty Officer 1^st Class Arthur MANLEY, newly trained as a Torpedo Instructor (TI) joined HMS A5 before she was completed on 11 February 1905 and commissioned. He was a member of the crew when A5 and her tender, HMS HAZARD, sailed to Queenstown, (now Cobh) in the Republic of Ireland. On 16 February 1905, whilst berthed alongside HMS HAZARD, an explosion occurred onboard, with a second explosion about 30 minutes later. Six of the crew were killed by these explosions.

Arthur Manley was buried in Old Church Cemetery near Cobh, with full military honours.

Footnote: 1 The Manley connection to the Royal Navy did not cease with Arthur Manley’s untimely but accidental death. His sons, Arthur and Jack, were both orphaned in 1911 – some six years after their father died in HMS A5 – and subsequently attended Greenwich School. Arthur joined the Royal Navy in 1917 and is recorded as serving in HMS MAIDSTONE between 1924 and 1926 and in HMS DOLPHIN in 1931. Jack also served in the Navy from 1919 until 1933 and was recorded as being in HMS DOLPHIN from 1926 until 1927.