In South Shields (Harton) Cemetery is the Commonwealth War Grave of:
J.M. Blackburn
Donkeyman
S.S. “British Commander”
3rd March 1945 age 59
John Murray Blackburn was born on the 16th March 1886 in London.
John Murray Blackburn married Winifred Hall, born 28th August 1902, in 1933 at South Shields. In 1939, John and Winifred Blackburn were residing at 24, Ocean Road, South Shields, and John was a Donkeyman at sea. Also at the home was Mary Blackburn, born 19th December 1932, and two other redacted records.
The S.S. British Commander, ship number 146652, was a British tanker of 6,901 gross register tons that was intercepted, shelled by gunfire and sunk, in the early morning hours, by the German auxiliary cruiser (commerce raider) Pinguin in the Indian Ocean, positioned at approximately 29°37′ S and 45°50′ E, south of Madagascar on the 27th August 1940 (with reports and wireless news of the shelling reaching land and logged by naval archives on the 28th August 1940),
The German Pinguin (designated Schiff 33/Raider F) was commanded by Ernst-Felix Krüder. Ernst-Felix Krüder was a Kapitän zur See in the Kriegsmarine who commanded the highly successful commerce raider Pinguin (Schiff 33).
The entire crew of British Commander, 46 men, survived the initial attack and shelling, but were taken captive as prisoners of war aboard the Pinguin.
The Pinguin was a German auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer), known as Schiff 33 and designated HSK 5, that operated as a deadly commerce raider in World War II. Originally built, in 1936, as the commercial freighter Kandelfels, it was converted by the German Navy to disrupt Allied shipping lanes before being sunk in 1941. It was known to the British Royal Navy as Raider F. It was equipped with six 15 cm main guns, torpedo tubes, and the capacity to carry up to 300 naval mines and it sailed the Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic oceans, laying mines off Australia and capturing or sinking 28 ships totalling over 136,000 tons.
The ship was sunk on the 8th May 1941, in the Indian Ocean, near the Seychelles by the British heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall. A massive explosion occurred when HMS Cornwall’s shells hit Pinguin’s mine room, killing 323 members of her crew and roughly 200 Allied prisoners onboard.
Ernst-Felix Krüder (born 6th December 1897, died 8th May 1941) was a Captain (German: Kapitän zur See) of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine). He was a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher-grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.
John Murray Blackburn first went to sea in 1923, as an attendant, and the British Chancellor, ship number 1089477, was the last ship he served on in from the 21st January 1939. The first ship he served on was the SS Homeric, ship number 146513 from the 23rd December 1925. He was a crew member of over 26 ships.
He was 5 feet nine and a half inches, Blue eyes, Brown Hair with a fair complexion. He earned three war time medals and his death must have been covered by the Merchant Navy Pension Act ,and as his last ship was involved as his only part of his war time service, he was granted full war grave status and hence his last ship is recorded on his headstone.
John Murray Blackburn died from war related injuries at South Shields General Hospital on the 3rd March 1945. By 1945, they had moved to 10 Charlotte Terrace, South Shields.
Sources: British Newspaper Archive; National Archives; Merchant Navy Archives; The James Hoy Archive; Billy McGee;
John Murray Blackburn is remembered at Westoe in W101.08, page 9, and on our List of Ships’ Crews.
