In Newcastle upon Tyne (St. Nicholas) Cemetery is the Commonwealth War Grave of:

E. Shotton
Wren 37681
Women’s Royal Naval Service
5th August 1942 age 22

Resting
Where no shadows fall

The daughter of John Edward and Alice Maud Shotton, of Cowgate Newcastle upon Tyne.

Eileen Shotton was born in Gateshead on the 4th February 1920, the daughter of John Edward and Alice Maud Shotton, of Cowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, she died on the 8th August 1942 at the E M S Hospital at Gleneagles from an Acute Ulcerated Colitis and Bacillary Dysentery. She served on HMS Jackdaw.

At Gleneagles Hotel, the era of partying, dining and socializing gave way to more serious business as it was transformed into an important military hospital. The hotel’s finery was placed in storage and the golf course bunkers filled in to avoid enemy detection. The bridal suite was converted into operating theatres, the lights for these being provided by spotlights from Henry Hall’s orchestra! The first convoy of 191 patients from the battle of Narvik in Norway arrived in May 1940 and many more followed from Dunkirk. Famous patients treated included film stars Stewart Granger and David Niven. Later in the War, the Hospital became a Fitness Centre for Scottish miners. The German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop had stayed at Gleneagles before the war, and apparently had it in mind as a private residence after the Nazis had won the war!

HMS Jackdaw was a Royal Naval Air Station Crail or RNAS Crail (HMS Jackdaw) and is a former Fleet Air Arm base located 4.9 miles (7.9 km) of Anstruther, Fife and 8.8 miles (14.2 km) of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

Eileen Shotton is remembered at Fenham on F31.05 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.