Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Naval Campaign is defined as to include all sea operations where attrition rates are in ones and twos and which do not fall within specific naval battles such as Jutland, Coronel, Falklands etc. This includes Merchant Navy losses.

Detail :

Note, the only person who matches the parameters of birth circa 1867 and died circa 1917 from Bristol is William Irvine of the Mercantile Marine, who died as Master / Captain of the "Duchess of Cornwall" and who drowned as a result of an attack by an enemy submarine on the 11th April, 1917. It is this information that this legend is built on.

The SS Duchess Of Cornwall was on a voyage from London to Le Havre when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UC-26 (Matthias Graf von Schmettow). This was 5 miles north of Cape Barfleur on 11th April, 1917. 23 persons were lost.

Masonic :

There are two members with the same name in Zetland Lodge, both initiated in 1906. The intended is William, the 39 year old Engineer from Bristol who was initiated December 10th, 1906. He was in arrears for the war period - 1917 column blank, and his final note in the 1918 column merely says: "Died."

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley