On the Tower Hill Memorial is the name of Master Hector Bennett, serving on Manchuria with the Mercantile Marine who died  17/10/1917.

The son of the late Capt. Thomas Waldon Bennett and Elisabeth Hester Bennett (nee Traylor) and the husband of Ruth Alice Bennett (nee Emele), of Gamlakarlcby, Finland.

The Rev. David Youngson has submitted the following:

Hector BENNETT
Mercantile Marine Master S.S. Manchuria

A Master Mariner giving his address as Lowestoft, he was Initiated into 1862 Stranton Lodge, Freemasons Hall, West Hartlepool on the 20th July 1908; Passed 2nd February 1910 and Raised on the 4th May 1910.

He died on 17th October 1917 aged 37 and is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial, London.

The S.S. Manchuria ship number 119877, (2997 GRT) was owned by Metcalf Simpson of West Hartlepool. She was carrying a cargo of iron ore, and was torpedoed by the German U Boat U 53, commanded by a Kapitnleutnant Hans Rose, sixty miles NW of Ushant on a voyage from La Goulette to Hartlepool with the loss of 26 lives.

Hector Bennett is remembered in our List of Ships’ Crews.