On the Tower Hill Memorial is the name of Fireman Andrew Ogle Adams serving on S.S. Beneficent (Sunderland) with the Merchant Navy who died 17/12/1940.
The son of William and Isabella Adams and the husband of Ellen Adams, of South Shields, Co. Durham.
Andrew Ogle Adams was born on the 28th April 1888, at Pan Place, Holborn, South Shields, the third son of William Henry Adams, (born 1858), and Isabella Grieves nee Ogle Adams, (born 1862), they had nine children. Robert Adams, born 18th July 1881, (in 1939, he was residing at 86 Hope Street, Jarrow, South Shields, with his wife Mary Adams, born 14th March 1883), Jane Adams, born 1884, David Adams, born 1886, Mary E. Adams, born July 1890, Lizzie, born 1893, Eunice, 1895, William, born 1897 and Lewis, born 1900.
In 1901 the family moved to 31 Johnsons Hill, South Shields.
Andrew was educated at the Holy Trinity School, South Shields. He was called up in WW1 on the 27th May 1915 at South Shields, 5 feet eight and a half inches, 146lbs, dark complexion, brown eyes. Service number ST1063. His address was Pans Place, West Holborn, South Shields. However, his enrolment was cancelled on the 21st June 1915, as he was employed with Smith & Co on Admiralty work already.
Andrew married Ellen Cowell, nee Newham Adams, born 7th January 1888, in August 1909, and in 1939, she and her husband were residing at 39 Watling Street, with three children, John W.S. Adams, born 29th October 1918, Robert T. Adams, born 25th July 1920 and Hannah May Adam, born 1900, Andrew Ogle Adams and Ann N. Adams. They had eight children. Andrew was also a seagoing fisherman. On the 29th October 1928 he is taken on at South Shields as a fireman on board the SS Queenswood, ship number 147776, as a crew member from Vancouver, in Canada to Olympia, Washington, arriving on the 22nd February 1929. He had now 10 years at sea in total so far.
Andrew Ogle Adams was a crew member on the S.S. Beneficent, ship number 162000, when it was mined on the 17th December 1940. He was aged 53. The ship SS Beneficent was mined 2 cables off Southend Gate on the 17th December 1940 with the loss of 6 crew when on route from Sunderland for London with a cargo of coal.
On December 17th, 1940, the steamship SS Beneficent, Captain P. Kirkaldy, was in convoy off Southend when she struck a mine and sank. Six men were killed by the explosion. Captain Kirkaldy was among the survivors, (another two South Shields men were lost at the same time, a John Broadmore Moralee age 38, [remembered at Westoe in W101.08, page 55]. Able Seaman, husband of Florence Moralee, of Cleadon, South Shields, Co. Durham, and James Wright, age 32, [also remembered in W101.08, page 91}, Able Seaman, he was the son of James and Annie Florence Wright, husband of Elizabeth Elsdon Wright, of South Shields, Co. Durham).
Official accounts by the Navy and the War office confirm the 17th December 1940.
There was a total of 6 crew lost on this vessel.
Acknowledgments: James Hoy Archive/ James Pasby/ Ellen Charlton
Andrew Ogle Adams is remembered at South Shields at S86.036, where there is an individual plaque to him, at Westoe in W101.06, page 1 and in our List of Ships’ Crews. He is also remembered in the ‘rolling’ Seaman’s Mission Roll of Honour book which is indexed by the date of the Month. December 18th is his entry.
