Every Name a Story
On Tower Hill Memorial is the name of Second Engineer George Thomas Cockburn, serving on S.S. Baku Standard (Swansea) with the Mercantile Marine who died 11/02/1918.
He was the son of Thomas and Margaret Cockburn and the husband of Margaret Josephine Cockburn (nee Howey), of 178, Woodhorn Road, Ashington, Northumberland. He was born at North Shields.
Rev, David Youngson has submitted the following:
George Thomas COCKBURN
Mercantile Marine 2nd Engineer
SS Baku Standard
A Marine Engineer residing at 1 Belle Vue Terrace, North Shields, he was Initiated on the 6th June 1910; Passed 1st August 1910 and Raised on the 29th September 1910. He died on the 11th February 1918 aged 31. He is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial, London.
The SS Baku Standard (3708 grt) was a tanker built on the Tyne by Armstrong, Mitchel and Co. Limited in 1893. Owned by Associated Oil Carriers ( J. Jacobs and Co. of London). She was torpedoed and sunk by the German Submarine UC38 five miles S x W from Tod Head Lighthouse Aberdeenshire, Scotland on a voyage from Greenock to the Firth of Forth with a cargo of crude oil. There were 24 casualties.
CWGC did have his date of death as February 11th 1917, however this has been changed to 1918. His probate records state he lived at 4 Springfield North Shields and that he died February 11th 1918 with effects of £158 8s.
The Newcastle Journal 16/02/1918 reports:
George Thomas Cockburn 4 Springfield North Shields has been lost at Sea.
George Thomas Cockburn is remembered at North Shields on N34.77 as George Thompson Cockburn with the date of death as 11/02/1917, at Tynemouth in T36.14 page 8, in the Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-18 (London) and in our List of Ships’ Crews.