Four Merchant Seamen

There are 148 names on the Bearsden War Memorial.  In terms of a single cemetery or memorial, the most frequent is New Kilpatrick with 14.  First World War memorials to those with no known grave at Thiepval (eight) and Arras (six) are next, together with the memorial to Merchant Navy men with no known grave on Tower Hill in London - this has seven names and has already featured in posts on John Gibbeson (link), James Craig (link), and Thomas Robertson (link).  This post commemorates the other four 'Bearsden names'.

Much of the information about the ships and their fate comes from the comprehensive website uboat.net (link).

Thomas Niven Rennie 

Thomas was Chief Engineering Officer on the SS Maritima in 1942.

On 2nd November 1942 the ship was in convoy SC-107 crossing the Atlantic to Glasgow, carrying a general cargo including explosives.  At 08.07 the German submarine, U-522, fired four torpedoes and achieved four hits.  Maritima sank in just over four minutes and a second ship sank as well.

Of the crew of 59, 32 died including Thomas.  A second ship, Mount Pelion, also sank, a further seven dead.

The link to Bearsden is via the address of his next of kin, his sister Margaret at 2 Strathview Gardens (26 Garscadden Road):

Thomas was born on 12th July 1877 at Maybole, near Ayr.  The family lived above the Union Bank on Main Street, Maybole, where his father was the manager.  He was the fifth child of Thomas and Elizabeth (17 years younger than her husband).  The family had three servants

His parents died within a few years in 1890s.  Unusually, the 1901 finds the eight children living together, four brothers and four sisters (age range 13 to 32) at 11 Hamilton Crescent in the west end of Glasgow.  

In modern terms this is Fortrose Street, and even at the time it overlooked the West of Scotland sport ground (cricket and football) in Partick.

With several of the adult children having jobs they even manage to have one servant.  Thomas's occupation "engineer on steam ship".

Thomas is missing from 1911 and 1921 Censuses (presumably at sea?), and never married.

Eric Forbes McMurray

Eric was Second Officer on SS Bullmouth, a petrol tanker.  In October 1942 the ship was part of a convoy, SL-125, sailing from Sierra Leone in Africa to the UK.

On 30th October 1942 the convoy was about 100 miles from Madeira.  At 00.21 and during bad weather U-409 fired a torpedo that damaged the Bullmouth.  She fell behind the convoy and was sunk at 01.40 by U-659.  Only 6 of the 56 man crew survived.

Of 41 ships in this convoy, 13 were sunk.  There is some speculation that routing and timing of the convoy was to draw U-boats away from troopships in the invasion force for the Operation Torch landings in north-west Africa (including Robert Carnochan (link)).

Eric was born 6th January 1916 in at 39 Comiston Road, Morningside, Edinburgh.  His father was David, a draper's assistant, and his mother was Anne Mitchell Forbes, married in 1912.

Number 39 is the one with the black shop front.

In the 1921 Census, aged 5, Eric still lived at the same address with his family.  His father's job was now as a salesman at Robert Maule's department store on the west end of Princes Street.

Eric joined the merchant navy about 1932 - he is described as having dark brown hair, blue eyes, fair complexion, and being 5 feet 9-and-a-half inches tall.

His connection with Bearsden is via his mother's home address which by this time was 27 Rannoch Drive.

Henry James Jameson (Jamieson on war memorial)

Henry was born at 1 Clyde Street, Dumbarton on 22nd January 1899, the seventh child of William, clerk in a shipyard, and Emily.

As a young man he was an engineer at Denny and Co. shipyard in Dumbarton and lived at home with widowed mother.  

From there he seems to have joined the merchant navy because when we next have a record of him, his job was "marine engineer".

This was when he was married to Alice Edward on 10th June 1939 at 55 West Regent Street.

They lived at 199 Maxwell Avenue, Westerton

In 1942 he was the Second Engineering Officer on SS Empire Hawksbill, sailing in convoy OS-34 from the UK to Capetown in South Africa.  

On 19th July 1942 at 02.30 U-564 fired four torpedoes at the convoy.  Empire Hawksbill was hit twice and sank with no survivors.

Edward Crane Hughes

Edward was born in 1901 in Liverpool and grew up there.  His obtained his Master's Certificate of Competence in 1927.

In 1929 he got married Jeanie Simpson McConnachie, in Huntly, Aberdeenshire.

In 1940 they lived at 8 Cluny Avenue, Bearsden, just a few doors along from Eric McMurray (see above).

In 1941 he was the Master of SS Empire Citizen in Convoy OB-279 sailing from Britain to Canada, but the ship was left behind (possibly engine problems?)  

At 01.45 on 3rd February a torpedo hit the ship and it started to sink.  Many of the crew managed to get off the ship, before the Uboat fired another torpedo and to sink her about 40 minutes later.

Of the crew of 83, 78 died including Edward.

Tower Hill Memorial

The Tower Hill Memorial commemorates Merchant Navy staff with no known grave.  According to Wikipedia, the memorial includes 12,000 names from the First World War and 24,000 from the Second World War (or 32,000 who died 1939-1945).  The First World War dead are named on plaques on the wall of a corridor building and the Second World War dead are named on plaques on the wall of a sunken garden at the same site.