On Tower Hill Memorial is the name of Pilot First Class John Swinney Young Bone, serving on Pilot Cutter Protector (South Shields) with the Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities who died 31/12/1916.
The son of the late Thomas and Alice Bone, of 155, Lawson Terrace, South Shields.
In St. Stephen’s and St. Aidan’s Churchyard is a family headstone which reads:
In loving memory of
Thomas Bone
Pilot
who died June 25th 1907
aged 63 years.
Ann
his beloved wife
died April 24th 1908 aged 60 years.
And their beloved sons –
John Young Swinny, (Pilot)
Lost at sea Dec. 31st 1916,
Aged 36 years.
Alexander
killed at Whitburn Colliery
Jan. 27th 1921 aged 27 years
Robert (Engineer)
lost at sea Aug. 22nd 1921
aged 39 years.
Thomas Bone (Pilot)
died May 8th 1927 aged 52 years.
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, likely laid by German submarine UC-31, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto von Schrader.
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.
Sources; The James Hoy Archive; Northumbrian WW1 Project; Bill Watson 2012; BBC; The British Newspaper Archive; The Pilots Log: Find A Grave; BBC;
John Young Swinny Bone is remembered at South Shields on S86.030, S86.062 and in our List of Ships‘ Crews.
