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In memory of:

Able Seaman John Edward Horsley

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Military service

Age: 23
Rank: Able Seaman
Force: Merchant Navy
Unit/Regiment: Canadian Merchant Navy
Division: S.S. Rothermere (St. John'S, Newfoundland) (172631)
Birth: Hartlepool, Durham, England
Death: May 20, 1941 North Atlantic

Burial/memorial information

TOWER HILL MEMORIAL
Grave reference: Panel 88.
Additional information
Son of James Horsley and Ann McGee of Hartlepool, Durham, England.

On 20 May 1941, she was sailing with convoy HX-126 which had dispersed when at 17:29, the Rothermere was torpedoed by U-98 south-east of Cape Farewell, Greenland. The Rothermere sank after receiving her Coup de grace at 17:56, position 57°48'N/41°36'W. Her captain and 21 crew members lost their lives. The remaining 29 sailors, four gunners and one passenger were recovered by the Icelandic ship SS Bruarfoss and landed in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 269 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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