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 :

The SS Coningbeg (master Joseph Lumley) was a 1,279grt British Merchant ship and is reported to have been sunk on the night of Monday, 17th December on its way back from Liverpool to Waterford, where she failed to arrive. All 40 crew and 4 passengers were lost. A sister ship (SS Formby) -whose 2nd Engineer, William Lumley was son of Joseph- was sunk by the same U Boat (U62) two nights earlier also on its way back from Liverpool to Waterford - all 37 crew and 2 passengers were lost. Both ships sank within 3 minutes of being hit indicating both were hit in the boiler room. Due to stormy weather, the Waterford Office could not telegraph Liverpool to warn the SS Coningbeg of the non-arrival of the Formby.

A letter dated 27th December 1917 from the office of the Clyde Shipping Company informing relatives that the company now considered that they must give up hope concerning the ship. It was still not known what caused the loss and few people believed that the ship had gone down owing to bad weather as the ship kept to a tight schedule in all weather conditions. She operated between Waterford and Liverpool loading livestock ,foodstuff and general cargo in Waterford and returning with general cargo from Liverpool . She was also certified to carry a number of passengers.

A German gentleman visited Waterford in the 1940's and paid a visit to Phelan's (relative of victim(s)) barber shop where he made enquiries about the sinkings, stating that he was a member of the U62 crew. It is believed that he was Ernst Hashagen,the U Boat Captain.

A memorial to the 83 was later erected on the Quay in Waterford. 67 of the 83 lost were from Waterford. All were given Service Medals (Ireland was still part of Britain) and are listed in the War Graves Commission in London.

See more at Wrecksite EU. (Multiple contributions).

Masonic :

There are multiple entries for William Henry Johnson in the register of Temperance Lodge, but date of birth confirms the correct entry, for a Marine Engineer resident at 20 Wellfield Road, Liverpool, initiated in 1905. No war service is recorded in the contribution record, but does mention that he "Died Dec 1917."

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