Fireman William Archer

William Archer. Far right second Row up

HMS Registan

William Archers's C.R.2 card

William Archer was born on the 5th March 1904 at 21 Catherine Terrace, West Herrington, Durham, the son of George Archer, [born 1872], and Mary (nee Brunskill), he was baptised on the 17th April 1904 in West Herrington.

His parents, George and Mary had married on the 1st June 1895 at West Rainton, Durham and had six children, William being their fourth child. He had three sisters and two brothers, Lily (1895-1962), Mary Hannah (1898–1972), John Brunskill (1900–1968), Sarah Anne born 1906 and Robert born 1909. The family were residing at 21 Catherine Terrace in West Herrington during both the 1901 and 1911 Census.

In March 1928, William married Elizabeth Jane Brass (nee Gordon) in Sunderland and during the next 12 years they had six children, Richard Thomas born on the 15th April 1928, George S born in 1930, William born on the 5th April 1933, Elizabeth born October 1935, Robert born 1938 and John Gordon born on the 31st October 1940.

His mother Mary died in 1931, and his father George died in September 1935, in Durham, both were aged 63.

On the 29th September 1939, the 1939 Register [National Registration], was taken and in that register William is living at home with his wife and five of their children (only two are shown at this time) at 66 Forest Road in Sunderland. At that time he was working as a Miner Wagon Weightman. The following year in 1940, his youngest son John Gordon was born.

William Archer died 28th May 1941, he was a member of the crew on-board HMS Registan ship number 161381, which was built and completed March 1930 by J Readhead & Sons Ltd, at South Shields. a 6.008 tons a steam merchant. Owned by F.C. Strick & Co Ltd, London. Based at London, it was on its way from Basrah to Capetown then Trinidad to Philadelphia. Carrying 1319 tons of general cargo.

On the 13th September 1940, it was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted to the ocean boarding vessel (OBV) HMS Registan (F 106). On the 27th May 1941 the vessel was bombed by [four] German aircraft off Cape Cornwall, [One bomb is said to have gone straight down the funnel], caught fire and 63 crew members were lost. The survivors were rescued by HMS Wivern (D 66), HMS Vansittart (D 64) and HMS Wild Swan (D 62) and landed at Milford Haven. The badly damaged ship was towed to Falmouth by the rescue tug HMS Goliath (W 121), [along with the St Ives Lifeboat, two motor launches], where she was rebuilt to a merchant and was returned to the owner in November 1941. [There was a Board of Enquiry looking at why she failed to obey signals from Naval Command to alter course during the day of Tuesday 27th May to Milford Haven. Apparently she received these too late, they were then countermanded and she was then off Cape Cornwall when attacked later that evening].

Two Royal Navy Boards of Enquiry were held after the enemy aircraft attack on HMS Registan. The first was held on the 2nd of June 1941 and the second on the 21st of June 1941.

The first Board of Enquiry was held to investigate why HMS Registan had not obeyed certain signals from Naval command to alter course during the day of Tuesday the 27th of May 1941. She was en route from Glasgow to Southampton and for reasons established during the enquiry she received the signals to alter course for Milford Haven too late. The order to alter course was then countermanded and she continued on a heading which would have taken her around Lands End to head up the English Channel to Southampton. It was later that night, while 8 miles off the Cornish coast, that she was attacked by enemy bombers.

The second Board of Enquiry was called as a result of a letter written by a member of the crew (who had been rescued) which stated in simple terms that at the time of abandoning ship there had been instances of cowardice and that certain uninjured crew members were getting themselves safely off the ship and into a lifeboat or onto floats before all the injured members of the crew had been attended to. The Board of Enquiry found no evidence to support his claim and put the content of his letter down to the fact that this crew member had been injured in the head and was still heavily dosed up with morphine.

General information about the casualties:On the 27th of May 1941 sixty three members of the crew were killed or listed missing, presumed killed, and of these only eight of the bodies recovered were identified. The remaining fifty five consequently have no known grave and are commemorated by name on two of the Memorials to the Missing erected by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission to honour their memory. Twenty eight of the crew are commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial and twenty seven on the Liverpool Memorial to merchant seamen who died while serving with the Royal Navy.

In addition to these memorials, there are five communal graves in Falmouth Cemetery, Cornwall. In these graves are interred the unidentified remains of twenty six sailors who died as a result of the bombing of HMS Registan and whose bodies were later recovered from the sea.

Source : Royal British Legion Risca Branch

Elizabeth Jane Brass (nee Gordon) died in December 1967 in Durham when she was 63 years old.

William Archer is remembered on Panel 20, Column 2 of Liverpool’s Naval Memorial.

William Archer is remembered at Sunderland in S140.159 and in our List of Ship Crews

There were two other men from Sunderland who were in the crew, Ninian McFarlane and James Parkin.

EU Wrecksite HMS Registan
Photographs of HMS Registan
The CWGC entry for Fireman Archer