W. Bro. Revd. David T. Youngson, PPAG Chaplain, Northumberland offers the following:
The information given below in respect of some of the brethren is the best possible conclusions from Lodge records, Grand Lodge records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission and data in respect of merchant ship losses during the First World War
1970 Hadrian Lodge
Year of Warrant 1882
Freemasons Hall South Shields
Frank PARKINSON
Mercantile Marine Chief Engineer S.S. Clearfield
The son of James and the late Mary A. Parkinson he was born at Lincoln. A Marine Engineer he was Initiated on the 2nd April 1912; Passed 4th April 1913; and Raised on the 29th September 1914. The husband of Gertrude Parkinson of 259 St. Vincent Street, South Shields, he died on the 23rd October 1916 aged 38. He is Remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial, London.
The S.S. Clearfield (4229 GRT) was owned by Hunting & Son of Newcastle and was torpedoed by the German U Boat U-55, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Werner, off the Flannan Islands, Hebrides on a voyage from Invergordon to Hampton Roads, USA with the loss of 35 lives.
Frank Parkinson is remembered at South Shields on S86.102 and on our List of Ship's Crew, and is listed in the Roll of Honour in the Freemasons' Hall, London.
