Training Ship Mercury Roll of Honour 1939-1945

(Updated 23rd November 2019 with 67 names)

On the Mercury War Memorial in Hamble Churchyard except for those names with an *

*0609 Loudoun Burdett Maule – Went to sea as an apprenticeship in a square-rigged merchant ship and passed for Square Rigged 2nd Mate in March 1902. During WW1 he served as a RNR Lieutenant and later in life he returned to the MN and served on deck as AB. On 29th May 1940 he was one of eight crew members who lost their lives while serving in the Southern Railway’s passenger steamer Lorina when it was bombed and sunk off the Dunkirk Beaches. His name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

*1153 Cecil George Burfoot – Royal Navy Sailmakers Mate in HM Boom Defence vessel Cambrian. Lost his life when the vessel was mined at Spithead on 30th May 1940. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

1313 Harold Francis Scrutton – Royal Navy Lieutenant HMS Assegai. Lost his life while on passage in the Shaw Savill liner Ceramic torpedoed and sunk by U-515 in mid-Atlantic on 6thDecember 1942. Of the 655 passengers and crew there was only one survivor. Harold’s name is on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

1472 William Henry Hunter – Royal Navy Able Seaman in battleship HMS Barham, torpedoed by U-331 and blew up off Alexandria 25th November 1941. Of her compliment of 1260, 862 perished. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

1507 Roy Berryman Edwards – Royal Navy Lt. Commander DSO and Kings Commendation for Brave Conduct. Mine Disposal Officer attached HMS Watchful. He lost his life trying to dismantle a mine on Corton Sands near Great Yarmouth 11th June 1942. He was buried at Sea off Great Yarmouth. Roy is commemorated in the Parish Church of St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth and on a memorial at Corton Sands. His name is also on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

1533 Herbert Rowley Walker – RNVR Lt. Commander in HM Minesweeping Trawler Pelton that was attacked and sunk by E-Boat S-28 off Great Yarmouth 23rd December 1940. His name is on the Naval Patrol Service Memorial at Lowestoft.

1580 Arthur John Pilditch -Merchant Navy, Master, MBE. In  command of the Furness Withy managed ship Empire Stanley torpedoed and sunk by U-197 while on unescorted passage  SSE of Cap Sainte Marie, Madagascar. 17 other crew members, six gunners and a passenger were also lost. His name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

1631 Paul Jones  – Went to sea in 1920 as an Apprentice with Furness Withy Co. and is known to have served with the Prince Line and Court Line. However, records suggest he left the Merchant Navy in 1929 and though his name was on the original Mercury WW2 Memorial there is no documentary evidence relating to his death during WW2.  Research is ongoing.

1636 Noel Eugene Tomes – Royal Navy Commissioned Gunner in destroyer HMS Martin, torpedoed and sunk by U-431 off Algeria on 10thNovember 1942 while covering the Allied landings in North Africa. Noel was not among the 63 survivors. His name is on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

1638 Alexander George Edward Tompkins – Royal Navy Acting Commander who was serving in the light cruiser HMS Newfoundland.  He waskilled in an air raid (probably a V1 rocket attack) on 28th July 1944 while on a course in London. He is buried at St Bartholomew’s Churchyard, Yealmpton, Devon.

1726 George Edward Creasey – Royal Navy Gunner in the destroyer HMS Intrepid sunk by German JU 88 bombers in Leros Harbour, Dodecanese on 26th September1943. He is buried in Leros Island War Cemetery, Greece and his name is on the Hertford War Memorial.

1793 Ythil Charles Lewis Bromley 1919-21 – An orphan whose costs were funded by the Artists Orphan Fund. From Mercury he joined Thompson Steam Shipping Co of Newcastle as a deck apprentice aboard their vessel Rio Azul.  Before sitting for his 2^nd Mate’s Certificate, he made several voyages, as an AB, in the Ellerman Hall Line ship Trafford Hall. He later joined the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. In March 1942 he was Chief Officer aboard their China Fleet tanker RFA Francol which, after escaping from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, was sunk by the Japanese Navy south of Java. He was among thirteen survivors who became POWs. Sadly he died at the Pakan Baroe POW camp in Sumatra in August 1945, as the war in the Far East came to an end.  His loss was discovered too late to include on the Mercury memorial.  It is, however, recorded on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill because it was thought he had not survived the sinking of Francol.

1800 John Leslie Porter – Royal Navy Warrant Supply Officer in the  aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, sunk by surface fire from German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau west of the Lofoten Islands 8th June 1940. Over 1200 of her crew went down with their ship. His name is on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

1961 Henry Malbon Mather – Bandsman, 6th Bn. Irish Guards Army Bandsman20thApril 1941. He is buried in the Guard’s Plot, Brompton Cemetery, London and his name is on The Guards Memorial.

*2009 Ronald Victor Avery – Royal Navy Able Seaman in the destroyer HMS Grenville that struck a mine and sank in the Thames Estuary on 19th January 1940. Ronald was one of 77 of the crew who were lost. His name is on the Great Gonerby, Lincolnshire, War Memorial and the Portsmouth Naval Memorial

2019 Barry Collingwood Denny – Merchant Navy Chief Officer in the Nitrate Producers Steamship Company ss Anglo Saxon sunk by German raider Widder 800 miles west of the Canary Islands 28th August 1940. Some of the crew including Denny got away an 18-foot jolly boat. It was washed up on the Bahamas 72 days later but he was not one of the two survivors having died on the 5th September. His name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London. The jolly boat in which he died was placed in the Imperial War Museum collection in 1998.

2099 Wilfred Wright – Merchant Navy Second Officer in the British Tanker Company vessel British Emperor sunk by German Auxiliary Cruiser Pinguin 350 miles south of Socotra Island on 7th May 1941. The British ship managed to send out a ‘raider’ warning before she was sunk. This was picked up by the cruiser HMS Cornwall that intercepted and sank the Pinguin by shell fire the following day. Unfortunately a number of prisoners on board Pinguin lost their lives or were injured during the action and it seems likely after being rescued Wright died of wounds on board HMS Cornwall. He is buried in the Mont-Fleur Cemetery at Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles.

*2162 Edward Terence Mudie  – From Mercury he went to sea as a Cadet with the British India Steam Navigation Co. Later he joined the Royal Navy and was appointed Lieutenant in May 1939. In 1940 while attached to the Gunnery School at HMS Excellent he was appointed to command the requisitioned Dutch coaster HMS Abel Tasman for service during the Dunkirk evacuation.  He lost his life when the vessel was mined and sunk with all hands in the approaches to Poole Harbour on 13th June 1940. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

2186 William Stanley Everett  – RAF Sergeant Observer with 88 Squadron, killed on20th September1939 during the first action in World War Two in which an enemy aircraft was shot down. In the course of the action with Messerschmitt Df109s over Saarbrucken, two Fairy Battle Bombers were also lost including K9245 in which Everett was a crew member. His pilot, Flying Officer Reginald Cubit Gravely, was awarded the George Cross for his attempts to rescue his crew from the burning aircraft. William is buried in the Choloy War Cemetery in France.

2316 John French Clark – Royal Navy Leading Seaman lost in the battle-cruiser HMS Hood sunk 24th May 1941 in Denmark Strait during encounter with German Battleship Bismark and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Only three survived from a compliment of 1415. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

2317 Frederick Norman Wood  – Royal Navy Leading Writer in the destroyer HMS Somali sank Denmark Strait 24th September 1942. Wood was one of the crew who volunteered to stay on board after Somali suffered torpedo damage while escorting Arctic convoy PQ-18. The vessel was lost in heavy weather while being towed to Iceland by the destroyer Ashanti and 45 men went down with her. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial and in the Law Society Memorial Book.

2328 John William Brockbank –  Bombardier with the144th Battery Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery captured by Japanese forces at the fall of Singapore in February 1942.  Later with about 500 other POWs, mostly from the Royal Artillery, he was shipped to Ballale Island in the Solomon Group to work as a slave labourer building a new air strip. In March 1943 with a threat of attack by Allied forces the Japanese decided to massacre all the POWs who had not already died of illness or as a result of Allied bombing, none survived. After the war John and his companions in death were reburied on Bougainville Island before being transferred to a resting place at Port Moresby. His name is on the Singapore Memorial in Kanji War Cemetery.

2364 Allan Denham Bailey – Merchant Navy Chief Officer in the Common Brothers vessel Holystone, a straggler from convoy OB-284, torpedoed in the North Atlantic west of Ireland by U-101 on 15th February 1941. There were no survivors. His name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

2372 Paul Henry Klipsch – RAF Sergeant Pilot wuth 92 Squadron. His Spitfire was shot downover northern Franceon his first combat mission on23rdMay 1940 while covering the retreat of British troops. Despite the presence of German troops in the area local people recovered Klipsch’s body from the wrecked aircraft and buried it secretly in the churchyard of the village of Wierre-Effroy near Boulogne-sur-Mer where it remains to this day, the only British serviceman buried there.

2398 John Wesley Bratley – Royal Navy Gunner (T) twice Mentioned in Despatches, the first for mine disposal operations and the second posthumously, for devotion to duty in clearing Messina harbour of enemy demolition charges while attached to HMS Elissa the Naval base at Messina. He was killed at Messina on 23rd August 1943 together with other members of a bomb disposal unit when an enemy demolition charge device exploded. His name is on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

2399 Jack Wiltshire Turner – Merchant NavyFourth Engineer in the Stanhope Steamship Company cargo ship Stangarth torpedoed by U-504 in the Western Atlantic north east of San Juan, Puerto Rico on 16th March 1942 while on unescorted passage from New York to Bombay. The ship was carrying military stores including ammunition and suffered a massive explosion. From the crew of 46 there were no survivors. His name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

2413 Maurice Richard Langham – RAF Flight Sergeant Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner killed on 12th April 1942 in an air crash near Glenmakeeran in Northern Ireland. He is buried at Philips Park Cemetery in Manchester.

2416 Sidney William Brown – Royal Navy Able Seaman serving at HMS Drake. the Naval Barracks at Devonport. Died of an illness28th January 1940 and is buried at St Peter’s Churchyard, Great Cheverell near Devizes.

*2418 Clarence Alfred Thomas Hyde  – Merchant Navy Assistant Steward who lost his life while serving as an Assistant Steward in the Auxiliary anti-submarine yacht HMS Campeador V lost with all hands when it was mined off Portsmouth on 22nd June 1940. His body was recovered and he is buried at the Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery in Gosport.

2459 Norman Burgess Lane – Merchant Navy Third Officer in Manchester Liner’sss Manchester Brigade lost 27th September 1940 when the vessel, acting as Commodore ship of convoy OB-218, was  torpedoed by U-137 in the North Atlantic west of Malin Head while on passage from Manchester to Montreal. His name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

2470 Reginald Eric Prothero -Royal Navy Petty Officer in the Special Operations vessel (‘Q’ Ship) HMS Cape Howe, a former merchant ship operating under the cover name of RFA Prunella, torpedoed in the Western Approaches by U-28 on 21st June 1940. Reg was among 57 of the crew who were lost. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

2489 Ian Eglington Gottschalk -Merchant Navy Chief Steward in the Watts, Watts Co., cargo ship Ascot. On 29th February 1944 while on independent passage from Calcutta to Madagascar the vessel was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-37. After the sinking when the crew were in lifeboats they were machine gunned and rammed by the submarine. Of the crew of 54 only seven survived, Ian was not among them and his name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

2496 Lyndon Walford – RNR Lieutenant in HM Submarine Pandora when it was bombed and sunk by Italian aircraft while unloading supplies from Gibraltar at Veletta Dockyard, Malta on the 1st April 1942. Lyndon was one of 27 of the crew who were lost. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

*2501 Alfred Butler –  Royal Navy Leading Signalman on convoy escort duty in the Flower Class Corvette HMS Vervain when he was landed sick to the Lajes Field Military Hospital in the Azores where he died on 27th April 1944. He was buried at sea and his name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

*2502 Ronald Etheridge – From Mercury he joined the RAF as an Apprentice at RAF Halton. He lost his life while serving as a Sergeant Pilot of a Hampden Bomber from 61 Sqn RAF that went missing on 15th April 1940 while on a mine laying mission off Cuxhaven. The four crew were assumed killed in action. Ronald’s name is on the Air Force Memorial at Runnymede.

2504 Eric Hoyes – Royal Navy Lieutenant in the destroyer HMS Boadicea sunk by aerial torpedo 16 miles southwest of Portland Bill while escorting a convoy to France on 13th June 1944. Only 12 of the crew of 182 survived, Eric was not one of them. His name is on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

*2517 Jack Francis Case – Royal Navy Leading Seaman in the minesweeper HMS Gossamer part of the escort for Convoy PQ16 to Murmansk. On 24th June 1942 the ship was sunk by a direct bomb hit during an air attack while at anchor in the Kola Inlet. Three officers and 20 ratings including Jack were killed. He is buried in the Murmansk Cemetery Extension and his name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

*2518 Frederick John Brett – Royal Navy Leading Seaman in the destroyer HMS Juno when it was sunk by Italian aircraft south east of Crete.on 21st May 1941. He was among 116 of the crew who were lost. His name is on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

2530 Arnold George Skinner – Private with the 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment  killed in action in Burma during the British retreat to India 29th June 1942. He is buried in the Imphal War Cemetery, North East India.

2556 Ivor Bentley Jones  – Royal Navy Leading Seaman in the light cruiser HMS Dunedin torpedoed and sunk by U-124 in the Central Atlantic NE of Recife on 24th November 1941. Ivor was one of the 419 crew who lost their lives. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

*2574 John Sydney Ernest Nottger – Royal Navy Leading Seaman in the new destroyer HMS Onslow.  John lost his life on 23rd December 1941 when he was one of a small number of RN personnel killed by fire from shore batteries during Operation Archer, the second raid on the Lofoten Islands. His name is on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

2576 Victor Julian McWhirter – Merchant Navy Third Officer in the Kaye, Son & Co., vessel ss Marcella, part of convoy OS-44 when it was torpedoed and sunk 190 miles west of Cape Finnisterre on 13th March 1943 by U-107. After the torpedo strike the ship exploded and there were no survivors. His name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

2586 Samuel William Thrippleton – Royal Navy Lieutenant in the cruiser HMS Uganda, one of 16 of the crew who were killed when the vessel took a direct hit by a glider bomb during the Salerno landings on 13th/14th September 1943. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

2621 Robert Lewis – Merchant Navy Third Officer in the Andrew Weir managed ship Empire Heron when it was torpedoed in mid Atlantic by U-568 on 15^th October 1941. The vessel was part of Convoy SC 48 on passage from Freeport, Texas to Manchester, there were no survivors. Robert’s name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

*2637 Anthony Briscoe Meria – Merchant Navy officer who in June 1939  transferred to the Royal Navy Reserve as a Probationary Midshipman. He was one of several of the crew of the destroyer HMS Vansittart who were killed when the vessel was bombed off Narvik on 10th May 1940. His name is on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

*2655 Robert Carey Groves – Merchant Navy 3rd Officer lost in the Ben Line vessel Benlomond when it was torpedoed and sunk by U-172 on 23rd December 1942 East of the River Amazon. There was only one survivor from the crew of 47. His name is on the Tower Hill Merchant Navy Memorial, London.

*2700 David Emlyn Hopkins –  Merchant Navy Bosun lost on 29th November 1941 while serving in the Everard tanker Asperity when it was sunk by German E. boats off Cromer. David was one of 10 crew who lost their lives. His name is on the Tower Hill Merchant Navy Memorial, London.

2670 Thomas Barker Leigh – RAF Flight Lieutenant. A crew member of a 76 Squadron Halifax bomber shot down over Belgium on 5/6 August 1941. He was taken prisoner and in 1942 sent to Stalag Luft III.  There in 24/25  March 1944  he took part in the ‘Great Escape’ of allied officers. Unfortunately Tom was one of the 73 who were recaptured and among the 50 who were executed as a reprisal on the orders of Hitler. He was shot by the Gestapo around 6th April and was cremated at Görlitz.. After the war his ashes were removed to the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery. He is commemorated on a memorial to the ‘Fifty’  erected at the site of the camp near Sagan by his fellow prisoners and his name is in a stained glass memorial window at St George’s Church RAF Halton along with the names of two other former Halton trainees who were executed after the Great Escape.

2706 John Louis Finch – Royal Navy Boy 1st Class lost in the battle-cruiser HMS Hood sunk 24th May 1941 in Denmark Strait during encounter with German Battleship Bismark and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Only three survived from a compliment of 1415. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

2714 Clarence Lancaster Mawson -Merchant NavyAble Seaman in the John Holt ship Robert L Holt sunk with all hands 4th July 1941 during a gun battle with U-69 north west of the Canary Islands. The vessel had been the commodore ship from the dispersed convoy OB-337 bound from Liverpool to West Africa. His name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

2725 William Wooltorton – Royal Navy Ordinary Signalman lost his life in the fleet minesweeper HMS Sphinx when it was bombed by enemyaircraft off North East Scotland 3rd February 1940. He is buried in Wick Cemetery, Caithnesshire.

2780 Reginald James Davey – Royal Navy Able Seaman lost in the battle-cruiser HMS Hood sunk 24th May 1941 in Denmark Strait during encounter with German Battleship Bismark and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Only three survived from a compliment of 1415. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

2784 Geoffrey George Ebbage – Royal Navy Able Seamanlost his life on 1st June 1941 when the light cruiser HMS Calcutta  was bombed and sunk by two Luftwaffe Junkers-88 bombers 100 miles WNW of Alexandria. He was not among the 255 survivors. His name is on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

2796 David Alistair Macdonald – Royal Navy Boy 1st Class in Tribal Class destroyer HMS Mohawk. One of 41 of the crewlost when she was sunk after being torpedoed by the Italian destroyer Tarigo during battle with Italian craft off Cape Bon 16th April 1941. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

2841 Kenneth Guy Warden – Royal Navy Reserve Midshipman lost in the battle-cruiser HMS Hood sunk 24th May 1941 in Denmark Strait during encounter with German Battleship Bismark and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Only three survived from a compliment of 1415. His name is on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

2849 David Edwin Luffman – Private with the 7th Battalion Hampshire Regiment who landed in France on 22nd June 1944.  He died of wounds on 9th August 1944 following the heavy fighting during the Battle for Mount Pincon in the Calvados region of Normandy. He is buried in the Bayeux War Cemetery and his name is on the Romsey War Memorial.

2858 Peter Heywood – Royal Navy Boy 1st Class in the Arethusa class light cruiser HMS Galatea, part of the 15th Cruiser Squadron,lost when the ship wastorpedoed by U-557 off Alexandria15th December 1941. He was 16 years old. His name is on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

2864 John Maidment – Royal Navy Ordinary Seaman lost in Dido Class light cruiser HMS Charybdis sunk by German torpedo boats off North Coast of Brittany during Operation Tunnel, 21st October 1943. 462 members of the crew were lost. He is buried in the Le Foulon Cemetery at St. Peter Port, Guernsey, one of 22 bodies that were washed ashore on the Island.

2898 Lewis Henry Baker Barnes – Royal Navy Boy 1st Class lost in Mountbatten’s ship, the destroyer HMS Kelly,  bombed and sunk during the battle for Crete, 23rd May 1941. His name is on the Chatham War Memorial.

2909 Jack Willing – Royal Navy Boy 1st Class in the cruiser HMS Neptune, mined off Tripoli, 19th December 1941. There was only one survivor from her compliment of 765. Willing’s name is on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

2939 William Dennis Tinkler – Royal Navy Able Seaman killed in the destroyer HMS Escapade while escorting Convoy ON-18 in the North Atlantic 16th/17th September1943. Whilst attacking submarines a ‘hedgehog’ mine exploded on deck killing 19 crew members including Tinkler. His name is on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

2958 Geoffrey William Miatt – Royal Navy Boy 1st Class in the Dido Class light cruiser HMS Pheobe damaged by torpedoes from U-161 off the Congo Estuary West Africa 23rd October 1942. 43 of the crew were killed including 17 year old Boy Miatt. He is buried in the Pointe Noire Cemetery in the Congo Republic and his name is on the HMS Pheobe Association Memorial in Bournemouth’s Central Gardens.

3004 John Michael Reekes – Merchant Navy 16 year old Apprentice lost in the Hain Steam Ship Company ss Trevarrack,  dispersed from Convoy OB-329 and torpedoed and sunk by U-101 in the North Atlantic southwest of Cape Clear on l8th June 1941. The vessel was lost with all hands. His name is on the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill, London.

3025 Peter Wells Iliffe – Royal Navy Ordinary Seaman in the cruiser HMS Uganda,one of 16 of the crew killed when the vessel took a direct hit by a glider bomb during the Salerno landings on 13th/14th September 1943. His name is on the Chatham Naval Memorial and he is also remembered on his wife’s gravestone in St Andrew’s Churchyard, Cromhall, Gloucestershire.

3028 Peter John Gibbs – Merchant Navy Apprentice in the Lawther, Latta & Co, ship Anglo African. He died in Liverpool in 21st January 1943 after falling down one of the ship’s holds.

Antony Verdon – RAFVR  Flight Sergeant – Was at day boy at Mercury with his brother Colin in the mid 1920s. A son of the Vicar of Hamble and nephew of the aircraft builder, Sir Alliot Verdon Roe. He was killed in action over the Bay of Biscay on the 18th March 1944 while serving in the crew of a Wellington bomber of Coastal Command 612 Squadron. His name is on the Runnymede Memorial.

Unknown – The Mercury Magazine of April 1948 reported that an unnamed former Mercury boy was killed in action in 1944 at Salzburg while serving with the French Foreign Legion. To date he remains unidentified.