In Tynemouth (Preston) Cemetery is the Commonwealth War Grave of:

A. Taws
Able Seaman. RN. C/JX.223616
S.S. Robert W. Pomeroy
1st April 1942 age 25

Remembered
to the end of time
his courage, his smile,
and his hand in mine.

Alexander Taws was the son of Donkin and Elizabeth Taws, and the husband of Mary Ellen Taws, of North Shields.

The headstone names his ship as “Robert W. Pomeroy” but the CWGC entry says “H.M.S. President III”.

Laurent Rizzotti has provided the following:

HMS President III was not a ship, but an administrative unit managing the Royal Navy gunners dispatched aboard merchant ships to man the guns installed aboard them since the start of the war. Alexander Taws was a member of HMS President III detached for service aboard Robert W Pomeroy, and was lost when she was sunk.

At 0046 hrs on 1st April 1942, the minesweeping trawler HMT Solomon was mined off 57C Buoy off Cromer, Norfolk, and sank around 53° 11′ N 1° 12′ E at 0220 hrs while in tow. Her whole crew was rescued. At 0330 hrs the Canadian 1724-tons cargo steamship Robert W. Pomeroy, sailing from London to Blyth in convoy FN 70, was mined and sunk in about the same position. 22 survivors were rescued but one gunner, Able Seaman Alexander Taws, was killed. The mine which sank Robert W. Pomeroy also damaged the steering-gear of the A/S trawler Basset.
British Admiralty War Diary, 1 April 1942

Alexander Taws is remembered in our List of Ships’ Crews.