THE great granddaughter of an able seaman who died in the first world war travelled from her London home to Bovey Tracey on Saturday to see a poppy placed on a memorial display on the centenary of his death.

Able Seaman Charles Ernest Samuel Steer – whose parents Charles and Alice and other siblings lived in Fore Street – was aboard the cruiser HMS Monmouth, which was sunk with all 734 hands at the battle of Coronel on November 1, 1914.

That day was his 39th birthday – his wife was then living at 6 Coastguard Station, Daddyhole Plain, Torquay.

On Saturday his great granddaughter Debbie White and her husband Mark stood proudly as retiring town clerk Terry Westwood placed the poppy on a special remembrance commemoration board below a silhouette painting of first world war soldiers in the Bovey Tracey Heritage Centre.