Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Walter Wittlow Shaw
In memory of:
Chief Engineer Walter Wittlow Shaw
March 14, 1943
North Atlantic
Military Service
46
Merchant Navy
Canadian Merchant Navy
HMT Empress of Canada (London, England) (146215)
Additional Information
January 1, 1897
Crewe, England
Husband of Mrs. Walter Shaw, of Vancouver, British Columbia.
On 14 March 1943, the Empress of Canada sailed from Durban, South Africa, to Takoradi, Ghana, with 499 Italian prisoners of war and Greek and Polish refugees, making a total of 1,346. At around 1 a.m. on the 14th, she was torpedoed by the Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci around 400 miles (640 km) south and off Cape Palmas in the extreme south of Liberia, West Africa, position 35°58'W. The attack caused the death of 340 passengers and prisoners of war, 90 women, 44 crew members and 8 gunners. The survivors were rescued by the British destroyer HMS Boreas (H77) and the British corvettes HMS Petunia (K79) and HMS Crocus (K49). They were landed in Freetown, Sierra Leona.
Commemorated on Page 225 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 23.
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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