On Tower Hill Memorial is the name of Fourth Engineer Officer Leslie Renton, serving on S.S. San Gerardo (London) with the Merchant Navy who died 31/03/1942.

He was the son of James and Elizabeth Renton, of Whitley Bay, Northumberland and the  husband of Laura Isabel Renton, of Hollington, Sussex.

At 22.22 hours on the 31st March 1942 the unescorted San Gerardo (Master Stanley Foley) was hit by two torpedoes from an U Boat U-71, commanded by Korvettenkapitn Walter Flachsenberg, and sank by the stern southeast of New York. The master, 47 crew members, two gunners and one passenger (DBS) were lost. Three crew members and three gunners were picked up by the British motor tanker Regent Panther and landed at Halifax.

Leslie Renton is remembered at Monkseaton on M15.02 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.