Photo: James Pasby

Herbert Burdett Flint was the son of Edward and Mary Ellen Flint, and the husband of Winifred May Flint, of Crewe, Cheshire.

H.M. Trawler Eileen Duncan was a Minesweeper, bombed at North Shields 30/9/1941

Peter Child has submitted the following:

I am the son Peter. I never knew my Dad since I was only 4 months old when he died. And I have only just discovered his burial site, having looked up the name of his ship, the Eileen Duncan, when the name came to me in a flash very recently. My mother died in 1974, so I have been unable to question her about my Dad, a matter of deep regret to me.

The only thing I know about his death is that on the night of the attack, he was due to go on shore leave. However a good friend of his, an electrician also called Peter but inevitably referred to as Sparky, asked my Dad if he would swop his shore leave since he, Sparky, had met a girl and wanted to take her out. My Dad agreed, and Sparky took his girl to a hill overlooking the docks. While there he saw the German planes come over and bomb the docks. He leapt up and went running back down towards the docks, but on the way down he fell into a hole and knocked himself out. When he came to he discovered he was in a bomb crater and had been lying next to an unexploded bomb. He later visited my Mum overwhelmed by guilt, saying it should have been him.

The only other thing I know about my Dad was that before the war he ran his own gents hairdressing shop in Paignton, Devon

Since then, my mother eventually remarried when I was 10 years old, and my name was changed by deed poll from Flint to Child

Having only recently discovered my Dad has a grave, I plan to visit it and lay some flowers to honour the father I never knew.

Herbert Burdett Flint is remembered on our List of Ships’ crews

H.M.T. Eileen Duncan
The CWGC entry for Seaman Flint