On Tower Hill Memorial, London is the name of Pilot’s Assistant Alexander Leslie serving on Pilot Cutter Protector with the Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities who died 31/12/1916.
Stepson of Mrs. E. Leslie, of 10, Keppell Street., South Shields. Born at South Shields.
Alexander was a pilot’s assistant and he was 21 when he died. He was born in South Shields, the 5th of 6 children of Alexander and Mary Ellen nee Waugh. His father was also a pilot.
In 1901 the family lived in Pearson Street in South Shields.
His mother died in 1900 and his father re-married Elizabeth Jane Robson. His father died in 1912. The last known address for Alexander junior is 10 Keppell Street in South Shields.
On New Year’s Eve, 31st December 1916, the Tyne pilot cutter Protector was destroyed by a German mine at the mouth of the River Tyne, killing all 19 men on board. The 200-ton steamer was serving the port of Tyne, guiding vessels through hazardous, mined waters during WWI. The loss was a devastating blow to the tight-knit Tyneside maritime community, leaving 33 children fatherless.
The Protector was waiting to transfer pilots to ships entering the Tyne when it hit a mine, likely laid by German submarine UC-31, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto von Schrader.
All 19 men on board perished, including 10 pilots, four pilot assistants, and five crew members.
The crew was mostly from North and South Shields. Victims included 70-year-old pilot Robert Phillips and his grandson Ralph Phillips, representing the interlinked nature of the families involved. The youngest was 16-year-old cabin boy Benjamin Rumney.
Aftermath: The explosion was so severe that only one body, that of Robert Phillips, was ever recovered, found in March 1917.
“There was a noise as if it was a volcano and all they saw was a column of water and smoke and the pilot cutter was no more,” says Bill Watson, whose uncle Ralph Phillips and great-grandfather Robert Phillips were on board.
Sources; James Hoy Archive; Northumbrian WW1 Project; Bill Watson 2012; BBC; Pilots Log; British Newspaper Archive; Find A Grave; BBC
Alexander Leslie is remembered at South Shields on S86.030, S86.062 and in our List of Ships‘ Crews.
