Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

Natural causes is attributed those deaths due to causes that were not directly associated with the war. Included in this are wartime deaths resulting from, for example, theSpanish Influenza pandemic and its associated pneumonia problems and other attributions such as age and exhaustion. It also groups those who through Post Traumatic Stress committed suicide as a result of their experiences.

Detail :

The crew list for 1915 shows George as Chief Engineer age 47, aboard the SS Appam, his birth as Barrow, and current residence as 14 Broughton Drive, Cressington, Liverpool. This was with the Elder Dempster line which served the west coast of Africa. Grave fears were expressed on 28 January 1916 with the non arrival of the Appam, which George was aboard, on a voyage from Dakar, West Africa to London, now many days overdue.

Newspaper reports the time, such as this article from the Melbourne Argus said:

The liner has been posted at Lloyd's as missing. Eighty guineas per cent have been paid to reinsure her. It is feared that she has been lost with all hands. The s.s.Tregantle reports that she passed between Madeira and Gibraltar one of the lifeboats of the Appam. The boat, which contained water-cans and a lifebuoy, had had 5 ft. of its bow knocked away. It is reported that 200 passengers were on board, while the officers and crew numbered 142. The 87 passengers in the first class included Sir Edward Merrewether (Governor, of Sierra Leone), Lady Merrewether, and his suite. Many West African civil servants were travelling by the steamer, which, however, carried no British or Dominion troops. It was however carrying German troops as prisoners who had been captured in fighting within the German African colonies, and a number of enemy civilians.

Leaving Dakar on. January 11, the Appam was last seen on January 14. Steamers which have arrived at London from West African ports since the Appam was due report having encountered heavy storms between the Canary Islands and Cape Finiterre. The Appam has been regarded as one of the show vessels of the Elder, Dempster line. She was splendidly equipped and manned, and fitted with wireless telegraph apparatus. Her commander, Captain Harrison, was one of the best known navigators on the West African coast.

It was on January 17 that the Tregantle sighted the derelict lifeboat near Teneriffe. The captain of the steamer states that the boat was quite new. It was capable of carrying 40 persons. He considers it probable that the lifeboat was damaged by a passing steamer hitting her in the darkness. A search revealed no wreckage. The company suggest that, as one boat was found, others may yet be picked up by passing vessels.

The SS Appam was in fact captured by the SMS Mowe, a merchant raider of the Imperial German Navy. The Mowe was disguised as a neutral cargo steamer, so that it could get close to targets. Not only was this vessel successful as a 'commercial raider', but sank a number of merchant vessels during WWI. This tactic was also used to some extent by the British, but mainly against submarines. These British vessels were called Q ships and acted as an armed decoy to lure the German submarines in close.

The Appam had been captured on 15 January 1916 east of the Madeira Islands, and unbelievably after taking onboard a prize-crew from the Mowe, along with the transfer of a number of passengers from other vessels which the Mowe had previously sunk, the Appam, now flying a German flag, was then redirected to the United States. Arriving at Hampton Roads, Virginia the American authorities listened with incredulity as the German prize-crew explained the capture and now wanted the Appam to be interned in the USA. This led to an interesting case with effect to maritime rules and laws, with the USA at this time being a ‘neutral’ country, and took many months to resolve, in favour of the British.

This probably explains why on 3 June 1916 SS Carpathia of the Cunard Line has listed two distressed British seamen returning to Liverpool from New York, 48 year old engineer George Porter Ashburner of 14 Broughton Drive, Cressington and William Dennish? a 40 year old mariner of Beechwood, 7 Alresford Road, Aigburth. It gives no other details.

George is found on the first class passenger list for the Cunard vessel SS Orduna departing Liverpool in March 1917 for New York. He is given as an engineer age 49, however, his entry has a pencil line drawn through it, as have others, all mariners. This maybe that they then worked as part of the Engineering Crew, wrongly listed as passengers.

An obituary in the Liverpool Echo on 27 July 1917 has; ASHBURNER - July 22, suddenly, at New York, aged 49 years, George Porter the dearly-loved husband of Elizabeth Margaret Ashburner, 3 Grassendale-road, Cressington (member of Mariners Lodge 249) Memorial service at St Mary’s Grassendale, on Sunday next, the 29th inst at 4 p.m. The articles in the Liverpool Daily Post on 26 July and 30 July 1917 give further details saying how George joined the Elder Dempster in 1894 and was the Chief Engineer aboard the Appam during her capture in 1916. It further states that he had recently been appointed as superintendent engineer for the Elder Dempster Company in New York.

With a memorial service held in Liverpool, and the absence of George in any Liverpool burial records the indication is that he was buried in New York. The probate index has him as marine engineer of 3 Grassendale Road Liverpool, died 22 July 1917 at New York. Probate Liverpool 17 October to Elizabeth Margaret Ashburner widow. Effects £568. 4s. 5d.

Masonic :

George Porter Ashburner was initiated into Mariners Lodge No 249 Liverpool on 6 April 1905, Chief Engineer age 37 of 10 Langham Avenue, Aigburth, Liverpool. He was passed with two others to the degree of a fellow-craft on 4 May, and these three raised as master masons on 1 June, with their Grand Lodge Certificates issued on 19 October 1905.

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
• Researcher : Geoff Cuthill