Rev. David Youngson has submitted the following:
Dane Geoffrey CROSBY
Mercantile Marine
Radio Officer SS Ashbury
He was the son of Arthur Geoffrey and Gladys Elsie Crosby of Norton, Stockton-on-Tees. A First Radio Officer, he died on the 8th January 1945 aged 18. He is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial, London, Panel 10 and his name is recorded in the 1939-1945 Book of Remembrance in Stockton Parish Church.
SS Ashbury (3901 grt) was built at West Hartlepool in 1924 and owned by Capper, Alexander Shipping Company. Having discharged a cargo of iron ore from the Mediterranean at Workington she was ordered to make her way to the Tyne for repairs to an engine condenser. Making her way north she encountered serious weather conditions and foundered on Debh-Seir-Mhor (The Black Rocks) off Talmine at the Mouth of the Kyle of Tongue, Sutherlandshire, Scotland. Forty two of the crew were lost and it was the worst non-enemy loss of World War 2.
Dane Geoffrey Crosby is remembered in Stockton on S138.19a and S138.52 and on our List of Ships’ crews
