W. Bro. Revd. David T. Youngson, PPAG Chaplain, Northumberland offers the following:
The information given below in respect of some of the brethren is the best possible conclusions from Lodge records, Grand Lodge records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission and data in respect of merchant ship losses during the First World War.
2418 Hedworth Lodge
Year of Warrant 1891
Freemasons Hall Ingram Street South Shields
Thomas Ralph ABBOT
Mercantile Marine Master S.S. Lorca
A Master Mariner of 7 Ravensbourne Terrace, South Shields he was Initiated on the 17th March 1904; Passed 15th April 1904 and Raised on the 28th March 1907. He died on the 15th November 1916 aged 37. He is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial, London.
The S.S. Lorca (4129 GRT) owned by C. T. Bowring of London, built by J. Readhead & Sons, Ltd., South Shields, was torpedoed by the German U Boat U-29. [This is incorrect], it was torpedoed by U-49, two hundred miles from Ushant on a voyage from Gulfport & Norfolk Virginia, USA to Cherbourg, France. It was carrying a cargo of Timber. 32 Casualties.
U-49 was commanded by Kapitänleutnant Richard Hartmann
Thomas Ralph Abbot is remembered at South Shields on S86.046, in the Freemasons ROH and in our List of Ships’ crews.
