On Tower Hill Memorial is the name of Bosun Francis Edward Alexander Nicoleff Morreno von Kursacoff, serving on  S.S. Elve (Liverpool) with the Mercantile Marine who died 11/10/1917.

The son of the late Christian Von Kursacoff and the husband of Polly Louisa Von Kursacoff (nee Riches), of 34, Duke Street, Jarrow, Co. Durham. He was born at Riga, Latvia.

Colin Boyd has provided the following:

Francis Edward Alexander Nicoleff Morreno von Kursacoff was born in Riga, Latvia on 20th August 1874 and was the son of Christian Ivan, Prince von Kursacoff and Louis, Princess von Kursacoff. He married Polly Louisa Riches of Jarrow in 1907 and took out British Citizenship on the 6th August 1912 using the name Edward Morreno in both cases. He served in the Merchant Navy and gave his home address as 34, Duke Street, Jarrow. Francis was lost while serving as a boatswain on board the SS “Elve” when it was sunk by gunfire from the German U Boat U-22, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See der Reserve Hermann Hashagen, on the 11th October 1917 in the Atlantic Ocean. There were no survivors from the 29 crew.

The Korsakov family was a long established Russian noble family tracing it’s rise in Russia to the 14th century. Various branches of the family used different spellings of the name (in common with most European nobility) hence the spelling of Francis’ name with the addition of the Germanic “von”. He was distantly related to composer Rimsky-Korsakov.

Since he apparently used an assumed name his naturalisation and marriage to Polly are possibly both illegal. His medals are engraved with his full real name as is his CWGC entry on the Tower Hill Memorial. On J2.10 he is recorded as E. Kursacoff.

Francis Edward Alexander Nicoleff Morreno von Kursacoff is remembered at Jarrow on J2.10 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.