Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Alistair Murray Donaldson
In memory of:
Second Radio Officer Alistair Murray Donaldson
February 18, 1941
Military Service
19
Merchant Navy
Canadian Merchant Navy
S.S. Empire Blanda (London, England) (141931)
Additional Information
Son of Richard Kennedy Donaldson and Elsie Margaret Greig, of Tayport, Fife, Scotland. Richard enlisted on September 23, 1915, at Vancouver, British Columbia, in the 6th Field Company, Canadian Engineers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, regimental number 129685. A sergeant, he fought in France as a sapper. He was awarded War Service Badge number 131986, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
On February 19, 1941, the Empire Blanda was sailing with convoy HX-107 towards Grangemouth, England, when at 8:18 a.m., U-69 fired torpedoes in her direction 160 miles (258 km) south of Iceland. The explosion was so powerful that debris fell back onto the submarine. The Empire Blanda sank with her captain, 37 crew members, one gunner and a passage, position 60°45'N/18°36'W.
Commemorated on Page 127 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance. Request a copy of this page. Download high resolution copy of this page.
Burial Information
TOWER HILL MEMORIAL
London, United Kingdom
Panel 130.
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.
Digital Collection
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