Photo : Ian Patterson

Source : Navsource Photo : P. Phelps

Photo: Robert Hurst Showing some of the damage.

Willliam was born on the 16th March 1924 at Blackhill to William Toole, [born 14th June 1892] and Mary Ellen nee Carney, [born 18th April 1899], their third son. William was one of eight children, James Joseph, born 18th November 1920, an apprentice bricklayer, married 3rd January 1953 to Mary Margaret O'Callaghan, [born 1931 died 1996], died 17th June 1988, John Nicholson Toole, born 1922, married 1956, died 1992, Jane Ann Toole, born 1926, married 1959, died May 1980, Thomas Leo born 18th September 1928, died 1998, Kevin Toole, born 1932, died 1942, Gerald Kenneth, born 6th July 1930, Francis born 31st August 1936, married 1958, died 2018.

Before the war he worked as a Joiner for Frank McClean at Ebchester.

William and his family moved to 70 Chaytor Road, Bridgehill, Consett and in 1939, Wiliam and his wife were residing still there with 8 children.

The ship was laid down as the unnamed U.S. Navy destroyer escort DE-571 by Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Inc., in Hingham, Massachusetts, on the 20th October 1943 and launched on the 12th December 1943. She was transferred to the United Kingdom upon completion on the 28th January 1944.
The ship was commissioned into service in the Royal Navy under the command of Lieutenant Glynn Percy Watkin Edwards, RN, as the frigate HMS Whitaker (K580) on the 28th January 1944 simultaneously with her transfer. She served on patrol and escort duty and operated in support of the invasion of Normandy in the summer of 1944.

The German U Boat U-483 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Hans-Joachim von Morstein, torpedoed the Whitaker at 0210 hours on the 1st November 1944, off Malin Head on the north coast of Ireland at position 55°30′00″N 007°39′00″W. Damage control measures brought the resultant fires under control by 0320 hours but not before the ship had lost much of her bow and suffered 79 dead. Towed first to Londonderry Port, Northern Ireland, and then to Belfast, Northern Ireland, Whitaker was declared a constructive total loss, remained inactive for the rest of World War II, and was decommissioned in March 1945. The U.S. Navy struck her from its Naval Vessel Register on the 19th May 1945.

The Royal Navy returned Whitaker to the U.S. Navy on the 3rd December 1945.

At 02.07 hours on 1 Nov 1944, U-483 fired two FAT torpedoes at convoy SC-159 off Matlin Head, heard two detonations and sinking noises and claimed hits on two steamers. In fact, HMS Whitaker (K 580) (Lt G.P.W. Edwards, RN) had been hit and lost the whole bow forward of the bridge due to the explosion of the forward magazine. The commander, all seven officers and 84 ratings were lost. The British rescue ship Aboyne from convoy took care of the wounded crew members. In the next two hours, the crew extinguished the fires and stopped the flooding of the vessel, which was then towed to Londonderry and later to Belfast. The frigate was declared a total loss and returned to the US Navy on 3 Dec 1945. On 9 Jan 1947, the wreck was sold for scrap to John Lee, Belfast and was subsequently broken up in 1948.

Source : U Boat Net

William Toole is remembered at Blackhill on B145.01 and Consett on C101.01

U Boat Net
Naval Source HMS Whitaker.
The CWGC entry for Stoker William Toole