On Tower Hill Memorial is the name of First Engineer William Cutter serving on M.V. Arabis (London) with the Mercantile Marine who died 16/09/1917.

The son of the late William Bailey Cutter and Catherine Cutte and the husband of Mary Hannah Cutter (nee Lightbown), of 7, Albury Park Road, Tynemouth, North Shields. He was born at North Shields.

In Tynemouth (Preston) Cemetery is a family headstone for Lightbown

James and Mary Ann Lightbown had a ten children all born at Alston but by 1891 the family had moved to Tynemouth.

Their daughters:-
Annie married Samuel Hollway
Alice married George Henry Grey,
Mary Hannah married William Cutter,
Edith married Walter Charles Wright
Maude married a relative William Ellis Gornall Lightbown.

The headstone reads:

In
loving memory of
James Lightbown
of Tynemouth
who died Octr. 18th 1920
aged 80 years

Thy will be done

Also of
Mary Ann Lightbown
wife of the above
who died Decr. 6th 1931
aged 89 years;

Also of Samuel Hollway
their son-in-law
who died April 17th 1930 aged 68 years

Annie Hollway
his wife
who died August 15th 1941 aged 74 years

Also
James Lightbown Wright
who died July 6th 1904
aged 1 year and 7 months

James William Grey
who died on active service in France
July 11th 1918, aged 21 years.

Grandsons of the above

William Cutter
Chief Engineer M.S. Arabis. killed at sea by
enemy action, September 1916 aged 43 years.

and Mary Hannah, his wife
died March 21st 1941 aged 64 years

William Cutter was the son of the late William Bailey Cutter and Catherine Cutter and the husband of Mary Hannah Cutter (nee Lightbown), of 7, Albury Park Road, Tynemouth, North Shields. He was born at North Shields.

Arabis had sailed from Gibraltar on the 8th September 1917 in convoy HG12. The ship had broken down and dropped out of the convoy when she was torpedoed 210 miles WxS of Ushant by U-Boat U-54, commanded by Kapitnleutnant Kurt Heeseler.

This date of September 1916 is incorrect. The vessel was sunk in September 1917.

The headstone contains reference to their grandson James William Grey.

Rev. David Youngson has supplied the following:
William CUTTER
Mercantile Marine
First Engineer MV Arabis sic [136783] of London.

He was Initiated into Yokohama Lodge No 1092, District of Japan on the 24th June 1904; Passed 14th October 1904 and Raised on the 18th January 1905 resigning in March 1905. He Joined the Lodge of Industry No 48, Province of Durham on the 23rd July 1906. He drowned on the 16th September 1917 following an attack by a German submarine. Aged 44 he was the husband of Mary Hannah Cutter (nee Lightbown) of 7 Albury Park Road Tynemouth North Shields. Remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial London.

Editors Note: The MV Arabis (3928 grt), ship number 136783, was built on the Tyne by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Limited of Wallsend in 1914 for the Flower Motor Ship Company (Sir Marcus Samuel and Co of London and operated by Smiths Docks Limited of Middlesbrough. She loaded a cargo of phosphates at Sfax, Tunisia and joined a convoy at Gibraltar bound for Garston, Merseyside. She developed engine trouble and being unable to keep up with the convoy she was torpedoed by the German Submarine U54 and sank two hundred and ten miles W x S from Ushant with the loss of 20 lives. Some records indicate the ship as S.S.

William Cutter is remembered at North Shields on N34.77, at Tynemouth on T36.01 and in T36.14 page 32 and  in our List of Ships’ Crews.