On Tower Hill Memorial is the name of Pilot’s Assistant John Cawthorne Cree, serving on Pilot Cutter Protector (South Shields) with the Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities, who died 31/12/1916.
He lived at 60 Kensington Road, South Shields.
John Cawthorne Cree was born on the 1st February 1898 and was educated at the Westoe Secondary School at Mowbray Road, now demolished.
John was a pilot’s assistant, and he was 19 when he died. He was born in South Shields, the son of John and Elizabeth. His father was also a pilot, born in Jarrow.
In 1901 the family resided at 43 Trajan Avenue in South Shields and John’s last known address was 60 Kensington Road.
The Pilot Cutter Protector ended her career at 7.00 a.m. The Cutter had been in at 6.00 a.m to get a relay of Pilots on board after which she proceeded to board several steamers which were lying near the harbour mouth awaiting daylight.
The Cutter was lying about a quarter of a mile from the piers awaiting the S.S. Mile End, which was stopped ready to take her Pilot on board.
Those on-board the ‘Mile End’ suddenly felt the shock of a violent explosion practically alongside of them and to their surprise saw a cloud of smoke like a volcanic eruption rise up from the water and the ‘Protector’ was no more, and those of her crew, Pilots and assistants all killed.
The cause of it is presumed to be a mine laid to destroy the H.M.S. Resolution of which left the port the morning previous.
The mine that sunk the ‘Protector’ was laid by the German U boat SM UC-31, under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Otto von Schrader. SM UC-31 left Flanders on the 28th December 1916 and returned on the January 5th 1917. The mines off Sunderland were laid the evening of the 30th December, the ‘Protector’ detonated one of them the following day. The 1,294-ton steamship ‘Lonclara‘ was lost on the same minefield on January 4th 1917. The ‘Protector’ went down with every soul on board,
There were another 18 crew members who died the youngest was 16 and the eldest 70. Only one body was ever recovered. Ten pilots, four assistant pilots and a crew of five.
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.
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.
John Cawthorne Cree is remembered at Harton on H104.03, at South Shields on S86.030, S86.046 and S86.062, and in our List of Ships‘ Crews.
