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 :

David EDMUNDS was born at Burry Port. He served in the Mercantile Marine, as Master of the SS Tangistan and was drowned when the Tangistan was torpedoed off Scarborough on the 9th March, 1915 by a German submarine. He was 44 years old, and is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial, London and the Kidwelly War Memorial, Carmarthen The Tangistan was on passage from Benisaf to Middlesbrough with a cargo of iron ore. The voyage from the Mediterranean had been like scores of other voyages which the crew had previously made; they had seen no enemy ships, and they had run into no mines. As the ship approached Middlesbrough, it was realised that she was early for the tide, so speed was reduced. Night fell, and all on board were anticipating their early arrival in port, when suddenly the ship trembled from end to end and then stopped. The hour of midnight was just striking; the lights went out. All hands rushed up on deck, to find the Tangistan was rapidly sinking under their feet. There was little or no confusion as orders were shouted from the bridge for the boats to be lowered. Before this could be done, however, the tragedy was completed; the Tangistan, on an even keel, disappeared in the dark waters, with all on board. Several of the men came to the surface, and cries rang out in the night, but only one of them survived the night's horror a seaman named J. C. Toole. He managed to secure a spar, and he clung to it in desperation as offering him the only hope of life. Benumbed with the cold, he noticed the other voices around him were soon silenced, and he remained the lonely survivor of the whole ship's company! All he could do was to shout in the hope that he might attract the attention of some passing steamer, and this he did with all his remaining strength. One ship had passed in the night soon after he had reached the surface, and then he descried yet another vessel, but failed to attract her attention. Three times hope of rescue was excited, but each time the desperate man was disappointed. He had been in the water for two hours when at last the s.s. Woodville passed near him, heard his cries, now faint with increasing exhaustion, and picked him up. He was afterwards landed at West Hartlepool. Of the crew of thirty-nine, consequently, only one man survived to tell the tale of the loss of the Tangistan. Whether the Tangistan was the victim of a submarine, or whether she exploded a mine, was a matter of some doubt, but it is significant that Die Deutschen U-Boote in ihrer Kriegsfiihrung, 1914-18 claims the Tangistan as a victim of U12, which was itself destroyed the following day. Sources The merchant navy (Volume 1) - Hurd, Archibald, Sir http://www.laugharnewarmemorial.co.uk/page22.htm Kidwelly

Masonic :

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