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In memory of:

Chief Engineer Officer John Emile Ledingham

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Merchant Navy emblem

Military service

Age: 62
Rank: Chief Engineer Officer
Force: Merchant Navy
Unit/Regiment: Canadian Merchant Navy
Division: S.S. Baron Cochrane (Ardrossan, Scotland) (160124)
Birth: March 5, 1880 St. John's
Death: December 28, 1942 North Atlantic

Burial/memorial information

TOWER HILL MEMORIAL
Grave reference: Panel 14.
Additional information
Son of John Ledingham and Anna Maria Brown of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Husband of Emma Davidson of Thornliebank, Renfrewshire, Écosse. Brother of Captain James Allan Ledingham killed in action on 9 October 1917 in Flanders, Belgium, while serving with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Forestrey Corps, regimental number 655422.

At 11:17 pm on 28 December 1942, U-406 fired five torpedoes' at convoy ONS-154 northwest of the Azores and reported two ships sunk and two ships damaged, but in fact three ships, Baron Cochrane (station #12), Lynton Grange (station #22) and Zarian (station #13) were hit and damaged.

The Baron Cochrane was then missed by a coup de grâce from U-591 but sunk by a coup de grâce from U-123 at 00.53 am on 29 December in the position 43°23’N/27°14’W. The chief engineer and one gunner were the only casualties of 38 crewmen and six gunners. The survivors were picked up by HMS Milne (G 14), (which was herself unsuccessful attacked by U-435 at 00.55 am hours. They were brought to Ponta Delgada, Azores.

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 262 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance.
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TOWER HILL MEMORIAL London, United Kingdom

THE TOWER HILL MEMORIAL stands on the South side of the garden of Trinity Square, a hundred yards East of Mark Lane Station, and just within the boundaries of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney and the Liberty of the Tower. It is at the hub of maritime England. Behind it are Trinity House and the offices of the Port of London Authority, and the Thames stretches before it; the wide space of Great Tower Hill, leading down from it to the river, is the traditional forum of merchant seamen and their fellow workers. Lloyd's is on the North, the Custom House and Billingsgate Market are near it on the West, and beyond the Tower, Eastwards, is the long line of the Docks the greatest dock system in the world.

For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

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