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Canadian Virtual War Memorial

John Turpin

In memory of:

Sailor John Turpin

March 1, 1918
North Atlantic

Military Service


Force:

Merchant Navy

Unit:

Newfoundland Mercantile Marine

Division:

SV Cecil L. Shave, a sailing schooner (St. John’s, Newfoundland)

Additional Information


Husband of Mrs. John Turpin, of St. John's, Newfoundland.

On 18 February 1918, the Cecil L. Shave was en route from Cadiz, Spain, to Newfoundland when she was boarded and sunk by deck gunfire by U-155 off the Azores Islands, position 35°30'N/11°20'W. All six crew members lost their lives. She was reported missing on next 1 March.

Commemorated on Page 70 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance. Request a copy of this page. Download high resolution copy of this page.

Burial Information


Cemetery:

BEAUMONT-HAMEL (NEWFOUNDLAND) MEMORIAL
Somme, France

Grave Reference:

N/A

Location:

The largest of the battlefield parks established in memory of Newfoundlanders who fell in the First World War is Beaumont Hamel, nine kilometres directly north of the town of Albert. In BEAUMONT HAMEL MEMORIAL PARK, which was officially opened by Earl Haig on June 7, 1925, the monument of the great bronze caribou, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, stands on the highest point overlooking St John's Road and the slopes beyond. At the base of the statue three tablets of bronze carry the names of over 800 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and the Mercantile Marine who gave their lives in the First World War and have no known grave. In the lodge, which houses the reception room for visitors to the Park, a bronze plaque, unveiled in 1961 by the Hon. Joseph Smallwood, Premier of Newfoundland, lists the Battle Honours won by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and pays tribute to its fallen. The park is one of the few in France or Belgium where the visitor can see a Great War battlefield much as it was. The actual trenches are still there and something of the terrible problem of advancing over such country can be appreciated by the visitor. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, no unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. When the roll call of the unwounded was taken next day, only 68 answered their names. The final figures that revealed the virtual annihilation of the Battalion gave a grim count of 233 killed or dead of wounds, 386 wounded, and 91 missing. Every officer who went forward in the Newfoundland attack was either killed or wounded.

Digital Collection

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  • Inscription on Beaumont-Hamel Memorial

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