Photo: James Pasby

Two Sailors
of the
1939-1945
War
Royal Navy
H.M.S. Malines
22nd July 1942

Known to God

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle 27/01/1966 reports:-

Two bodies in ship, says Tyne yard man

NEW facts have come to light which may help to solve the mystery of the bodies of two unknown sailors who are buried in Swalwell cemetery, near Dunston. Information was given to the Evening Chronicle by a man who says that it was known the bodies were on board HMS Malines before they were found when the ship was broken up at Dunston.

Last week a reporter was told that nothing was known about the bodies until they were discovered in fuel tanks at the breakers yard in 1948. The Malines, an auxiliary cruiser, was torpedoed in July, 1942. off Port Said. She was beached and then brought back to the Tyne.

The bodies were buried in Swalwell graveyard after a verdict of death by enemy action had been recorded on them. The funeral was with full military honours.

But now an even more mysterious story, involving ghosts and an officer on the ship. has come to light. Mr. Henry Beadham, aged 65. a retired slinger, of Cumberland Street, Wallsend, remembers the Malines clearly. He said: I was working at Wallsend Slipway when the Malines was brought in after the war. She was in a terrible mess. The deck was buckled and the boiler had been completely turned round by the blast of the torpedo.

He added: When I was working on it an officer asked me if I had been down below where there were two dead bodies. He must have known the two men were there. I gathered later that the two men were probably stokers and had been members of the Merchant Navy and then attached to the RNVR when the war came. Mr. Beadham went on: We took the engines out but it was impossible to find the bodies. Later, a watchman refused to spend any more time on the Malines. He talked of ghosts on board. At the time he did not know of the bodies.