In St Pirans Churchyard, Perranzabuloe, Cornwall, is the Commonwealth War Grave of Master Joseph William Manning serving on S.S. “Cheviot Range” (West Hartlepool) with the Mercantile Marine who died 21/02/1918.
He was the son of James Manning, and husband of Mary Manning, of 31 The Westlands, Sunderland.
Linda Gowans has submitted the following:-
Joseph was born in Sunderland in 1870. On the 1881 census he was at 35 Amberley Street with father James W., a butcher, mother Margaret Ellen, and two younger siblings. By 1891 Margaret was a widow, and in 1911 she was with her daughter Jane Ellen in Hexham.
On April 17th 1884, aged 14, Joseph was indentured in the Merchant Navy at Newport for four years. Back in Sunderland, between 1888 and 1894 he gained his Second Mates, First Mates and Masters certificates.
In 1897 he married Mary Galt in Sunderland: the 1901 census shows her at 16 Riversdale Terrace with Mary Basbow, a 63-year-old Nurse and General Servant. In 1911 Mary Manning was at 104 Ewesley Road with sons Joseph William, 7 and Derrick, 4, and Alice Graham, 26, General Servant (Domestic). In both 1901 and 1911 her husband Joseph was presumably away at sea. When probate was granted after his death Mary was still at 104 Ewesley Road.
By early 1918 Joseph was Master of Cheviot Range, a 3,691 GRT cargo steamer built in 1914 by Irvines of West Hartlepool and operated by Neptune Steam Navigation Co. At 00.45 am on February 21st, 1918, 25 miles south of the Lizard, she was attacked by gunfire from two submarines, one of them U 102, while en route from Tuticorin, India, to the UK. Joseph sent out a radio distress signal and maintained maximum speed, attempting to outrun the enemy, but the ship was abandoned at 1.15 a.m. after 50 rounds of ammunition had been fired at her, Joseph remaining on board when she sank. Nine survivors landed from a boat in South Devon, but twenty-seven lives were lost, including Josephs. Wartime restrictions seem to have prevented local press reports, but Master Joseph Manning is buried in St Piran’s Churchyard, Perranzabuloe, Cornwall.
At St Piran’s, Perranzabuloe, a headstone with the emblems of both the Mercantile Marine and the Royal Navy marks the graves of seven casualties of World War 1.
Joseph William Manning is remembered at Sunderland on S140.009, S140.010 and in S140.48 Part 8 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.
