Photo: Angela Conroy

Photo: Angela Conroy

Angela Conroy has submitted the following:

In Whitley Bay Cemetery is a family headstone which includes:

There is another stone which reads:

Whitley Seaside Chronicle and Visitors' Gazette Friday March 27 1942 reports:

'LOST AT SEA

Mrs Edna Clothier, of Belsay Avenue, Whitley Bay has been officially informed that her husband, Captain Reginald Clothier, has been lost at sea.

While acting as chief officer on a ship bound from Iceland to New York he was swept overboard on Christmas Day and lost. Captain Clothier had resided in Whitley Bay for over (23?) years and was well known in the district. He was a native of Whitstable Kent.

Throughout the Great War he served at sea and in the present war saved many British soldiers at Dunkirk, to which his ship, homeward bound from New York was diverted.

During the Spanish War Captain Clothier was master of a vessel carrying food to Spain, where he survived bombing and machine gun attacks. He leaves two children a boy and a girl.'

Reginald was the brother of William Henry Clothier

Reginald Clothier is remembered in Whitley Bay on W84.01 and on our List of Ships’ crews

The CWGC entry for Chief Officer Clothier