Tower Hill Memorial Plaque
On the 9th August 1941 the S.S, Glendalough, ship number 165155, was badly damaged by a bomb dropped from a German aircraft.
Casualties on 9th August 1941 (bombed and seriously damaged) were: Samuel Bunting, Chief Engineer, Ballymena W. White, 2nd Engineer, Carrickfergus Leonard Flint, A.B, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Frank Lovelace, Cook, Poole J E Anderson, Fireman, South Shields William Cunningham, Fireman, Gateshead J Scullion, Fireman, Gateshead. James Ormston, Gunner, Oldham, Manchester. James Ormston was my Grandad who was serving as an Anti Air gunner on the vessel and killed in the first attack.
SS Glendalough was built in 1936 in Aberdeen. Its deadweight tonnage was 1.212 tons. It served from 1936 to 1943 where is was badly damaged by a mine.
Many say that it sank there and then however I have seen information from the Henry Bloggs museum which is attached to Cromer RNLI and they were helpful with regards to the sinking in 1943, and have informed a reliable source of mine that the Royal Navy had to deliberately sink the Glendalough after it was mined as it was in a busy shipping lane.
Source : Beardall Dave 25/07/2005, with thanks.
The ship spent many of the war years performing a very important service of being a merchant ship, moving coal and other supplies up and down the East coast to aid the war effort.
Casualties on 19th March 1943. (sunk by mine): John Nicol, Chief Engineer, Swansea, Francis V Boyd, A.B, Shoreham; Robert Millar, Cook, Dunmurry; A. Dawkins, Fireman, Southhampton, and C. Galea, Fireman, Malta.
During its service the steamer was also attacked on 9th August 1941. Bombed and seriously damaged by a Focke-wulf. The bomb hit the engine room and severely damaged the ship with the loss of at least 8 lives. It was then towed back to Grimsby where it was repaired only to sunk in the later mine incident in 1943.
On 19/03/1943 the Belfast collier GLENDALOUGH was on passage from Shoreham-by-Sea to Tyne, in ballast, when she foundered after detonating a German laid mine, with the loss of 5 of the 16 crew. The wreck was dispersed by explosives soon after.
* Consiglio GALEA, died 19th March 1943, aged 35 years. He was a F & T on the cargo ship Glendalough, which was sailing up the east coast of England and struck a mine off Cromer
Acknowledgments Barney Rice
John E. Anderson is remembered in South Shields on S86.036 and on our List of Ships’ crews.
