On Tower Hill Memorial is the name of Cabin Boy William Fawcett serving on M.V. Cordelia (Liverpool) with the Merchant Navy who died 03/02/1943.

The son of William Fawcett, and of Edith M. Fawcett, of Ashington, Northumberland.

Colin Boyd has supplied the following:

William Fawcett was born on the 4th February 1925. His address was given as 161 Pont Street, Ashington. His next of kin was his mother, Edith Maude Cochrane, of 86 Milburn Road, Ashington, which suggests that she had remarried and moved to a new address.

William was serving on board the M.V. Cordelia and was presumed drowned when the vessel went missing on the 3rd February 1943, aged 18. But the dates suggest that he died on the day before his 18th birthday.

M.V. Cordelia was at 21.54 hours on the 3rd February 1943, the unescorted Cordelia (Master Edward Marshall), a straggler from convoy HX-224, was torpedoed and sunk by U Boat U-632, commanded by Korvettenkapitn Hans Karpf, south of Iceland. The master, 37 crew members and eight gunners were lost. The sole survivor, chief engineer I.C. Bingham, was taken prisoner by the U-boat and carelessly mentioned convoy SC-118 which was reported to the BdU. The convoy was subsequently attacked with the loss of nine ships. The survivor landed at Brest on the 14th February and was taken to the German POW camp Milag Nord.

Cordelia Type: Motor tanker, Tonnage: 8,190 tons; Completed 1932 – Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Wallsend, Sunderland.
Owner C.T. Bowring & Co Ltd, London, Homeport,Liverpool. Was carrying 12,000 tons of Admiralty fuel oil.

William Fawcett is remembered at Ashington on A17.01 (A11.27) and A17.43/