Canadian Virtual War Memorial
John Ernest Paine
In memory of:
Greaser John Ernest Paine
July 15, 1942
South Atlantic
Military Service
31
Merchant Navy
Canadian Merchant Navy
S.S. Gloucester Castle (London, England) (132592)
Additional Information
December 16, 1910
Halifax, Nova Scotia
His real name is John Ernest Murphy and he served under his mother's surname Paine.
Son of John James Murphy and Susannah Studd Paine of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Husband of Grace Anna Snooks of Halifax. Father of Robert William and Eleanore Paine.
On 15 July 1942, the Gloucester Castle sailed from Liverpool, England, to Table Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, with 12 passengers, 142 crew and 6 gunners. It was boarded by the German raider Michel, Schiff 28, and sunk by gunfire off the south-west African coast in South Atlantic. The attack cost the captain, 92 passengers and crew their lives. Two lifeboats with 61 people were captured by the raider and the occupants were landed in Japan as prisoners of war.
Commemorated on Page 205 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance. Request a copy of this page. Download high resolution copy of this page.
Burial Information
HALIFAX MEMORIAL
Nova Scotia, Canada
Panel 22.
The HALIFAX MEMORIAL in Nova Scotia's capital, erected in Point Pleasant Park, is one of the few tangible reminders of the men who died at sea. Twenty-four ships were lost by the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War and nearly 2,000 members of the RCN lost their lives. This Memorial was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and was unveiled in November 1967 with naval ceremony by H.P. MacKeen, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, in the presence of R. Teillet, then Minister of Veterans Affairs. The monument is a great granite Cross of Sacrifice over 12 metres high, clearly visible to all ships approaching Halifax. The cross is mounted on a large podium bearing 23 bronze panels upon which are inscribed the names of over 3,000 Canadian men and women who were buried at sea. The dedicatory inscription, in French and English, reads as follows:
1918-1945
IN THE HONOUR OF
THE MEN AND WOMEN
OF THE NAVY
ARMY AND MERCHANT NAVY
OF CANADA
WHOSE NAMES
ARE INSCRIBED HERE
THEIR GRAVES ARE UNKNOWN
BUT THEIR MEMORY
SHALL ENDURE.
On June 19, 2003, the Government of Canada designated September 3rd of each year as a day to acknowledge the contribution of Merchant Navy Veterans.
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