In South Shields (Harton) Cemetery is the Commonwealth War Grave of:

T.M. Scott
Chief Officer
S.S. “Wandle”
9th October 1943  age 37

The son of Peter Scott, Master Mariner and Catherine Jane Scott, of South Shields and the husband of Eleanor Scott.

Thomas Milburn Scott was born on the 3rd May 1906 at 19 Eleanor Street, South Shields, one of four children of Peter Scott, born Brunswick Street, South Shields, 18th May 1866, baptised St Hilda’s 6th June 1866, and his wife, Catherine Jane nee Errington, born 17th November 1873, baptised 7th December 1873, [she was the 2nd youngest daughter of six children of  William Errington, born 26th March 1832, and his wife Charlotte Errington, born 1833], they were married in 1896.

The other children were
Elsie Scott, born 4th August 1897, [she married Henry Guy Grainge, born 12th January 1898. He was an Insurance Agent and in 1939 there were two children  Harold P. Grainge, born 8th July 1938 and one other residing at 23 Cauldwell Avenue, South Shields, Co Durham],
and Doris Margaret Scott, born 14th December 1902, baptised 11th January 1903,
1 child died.

Catherine the mother in 1881 was residing at 28 Thrift Street, South Shields with her parents and siblings, by 1891 they had moved to 23 Long Row, South Shields. The family had originally moved from 84 Wapping Street, after 1861.

Peter Scott was a Master, he passed his Master’s certificate on the 11th March 1892, and he worked for Burnett and Co, who were based at Milburn House in Newcastle upon Tyne, and in June 1921 was unemployed. He served in WW1. Peter received the Mercantile Marine Medal from the Tyne Pilotage Commissioners, and the War Medal and Victory Medal in 1921. He was residing at 45 Henry Nelson Street, South Shields.

Thomas Milburn Scott was married in 1930 to a Eleanor Walsh. They resided at 24 Laburnum Grove, Cleadon. But moved to 24 Cauldwell Avenue, South Shields. They had a child Audrey?.

Thomas Milburn Scott was serving on SS Wandle, ship number 163297 as a Second Mate. SS Wandle was a British coastal collier owned and operated by the proprietors of Wandsworth Gas Works in south-west London. She was a flatiron, meaning that she had a low-profile superstructure, hinged funnel, hinged or telescopic mast and folding wheelhouse to enable her to pass under low bridges on the tidal River Thames upriver from the Pool of London. She was in service from 1932 to 1959 and survived a number of enemy attacks in the Second World War.

In the Second World War Wandle travelled laden in FS-series convoys southwards as far as Southend and in ballast in FN-series or EC-series convoys from Southend northwards. When the UK armed its merchant ships she was fitted with one 12-pounder gun, two Lewis guns and a Hotchkiss gun.

During air attacks on the 13th and 31st August 1940, Wandle succeeded in hitting enemy aircraft. On the latter occasion a fire started on her degaussing cable but her engineers repaired the cable enabling her to pass through a heavily mined area.

On the 23rd March 1941 in the North Sea an E-boat attacked her with rapid gunfire but Wandle’s Mate, Edward Clarke, returned fire with the 12-pounder and with his sixth shot disabled the E-boat’s gun and repulsed the attack.

At 2340 hrs on the 11th June 1941 enemy aircraft torpedoed and sank the 2,056 GRT coaster SS Moorwood, ship number 167413, Wandle’s Mate recovered a man who had been blown overboard from Moorwood into the sea; then the Mate and Wandle’s crew picked up the remainder from Moorwood’s lifeboat.

During an air attack on the 20th September 1941, Wandle fired at enemy aircraft and succeeded in damaging one. On the 24th October during an attack off the east coast of Norfolk she returned fire and “probably” hit an enemy E-boat.

In April 1942 Captain Mastin was awarded the OBE and Edward Clarke was awarded the MBE for the fine defence of their ship.

At 2125 hrs on the 9th November 1942 Wandle was in ballast heading northwards off Lowestoft when a flotilla of E-boats attacked her convoy. A torpedo struck her starboard side about 20 feet (6 m) forward of her bridge. It almost completely blew off her bow, and flung debris so far that it killed a Royal Artillery Maritime Regiment DEMS gunner in the after part of the ship.[ After 20 minutes her crew launched both lifeboats and abandoned ship. A rescue tug recovered the survivors and then went to recover survivors from another ship that had been sunk. After this Wandle was still afloat but she was on fire, her below decks accommodation was flooded, her fore part awash and her no. 2 hold taking water.

Captain Mastin assembled a volunteer crew of nine men including himself and the Mate Edward Clarke. They re-boarded the ship and extinguished the fire, and a party directed by the Chief Engineer J.S. Johnson got her dynamo and pumps started. The rescue tug took her in tow, but her ruined bow was still attached which worked as a large and unwieldy sea anchor. This limited their progress to about 1 knot (2 km/h), and it took the tug 16 hours to tow Wandle to Great Yarmouth the next day. She was anchored off Yarmouth and her condition was deemed so precarious that she was abandoned a second time.

An Admiralty salvage officer came aboard and cut away several hundred tons of wreckage. This relieved the strain on her bulkhead, which was then patched and shored up with heavy timbers. She was towed into Yarmouth for a few hours but was then towed north again by two tugs. A northerly gale arose and swung her about violently, and she was often awash. The tugs and Wandle sheltered in the Humber to escape heavy seas and in a bay to wait for fog to pass. On the fifth day after being torpedoed, Wandle finally reached the River Tyne. On the 5th December she was dry-docked at John Readhead & Sons’ shipyard in South Shields. During this whole period of salvage and towing, the volunteer crew led by Captain George Mastin, Mate Edward Clarke and Engineer ‘Stanley’ Johnson, remained with the Wandle, until she was safely docked at Redheads, to ensure no salvage claims were made on the owners.

Wandle had not only lost her bow; what remained of her was now badly twisted. Readhead’s straightened her, built a new bow onto her and on either 30th March] or 8th April 1943 she was ready to return to service. In 1949 the Wandsworth and District Gas Company was nationalised and became part of the new South Eastern Gas Board, Wandle became part of the SEGB fleet and remained in service until 1959. A Dutch tug then towed her across the North Sea to Rotterdam where she arrived on the 3rd November 1959 to be scrapped. Source : Central Office of Information and John Readhead Magazine entry. 1948.

Thomas Milburn Scott died at the Cleadon Park Sanatorium on the 9th October 1943 of a Pulmonary Tuberculosis, which was deemed attributed to War service.

Thomas Milburn Scott is remembered at Harton on H104.09, at Westoe in W101.08, page 82 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.